Product Description

Sometimes, to follow your dreams?you've go to bend the rules! Audiences and critics alike are cheering wildly for this "exhilarating?terrific comedy" (Entertainment Weekly) about a young girl who is torn between adhering to family traditions and attaining super-stardom on the soccer field. Hailed as the year's must-see crowd pleaser that "makes you feel good and laugh out loud" (Chicago Sun-Times), "Bend It Like Beckham" scores! (Time Magazine)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12457 in DVD
• Brand: KNIGHTLEY,KEIRA
• Released on: 2003-09-30
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .26 pounds
• Running time: 112 minutes

Amazon.com
Bend It Like Beckham is true girl power. This glorious comedy centers on Jess (Parminder Nagra), an Indian girl born in England whose only desire is to become a football--or, as we say on this side of the Atlantic, soccer--star like her idol, David Beckham; but her traditional family refuses to even consider it. With the help of her new friend Juliet (Keira Knightley), Jess secretly joins a girls' team under the guidance of a male coach (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). As the team starts to gain some attention, Jess's secret can't be kept forever. The story of Bend It Like Beckham is so genuine and detailed that it transcends all the sports-movie formulas that it also fulfills with cheeky exuberance. Wonderfully acted, and written and directed with loving care by Gurinder Chadha (Bhaji on the Beach, What's Cooking?), this movie is pure delight from start to finish. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker
A crowd-pleasing British movie devoted to the radical idea that girls can play soccer and sprain their ankles. Jess (Parminder Nagra) is a Sikh who hides her love of the game from her conservative parents, while Jules (Keira Knightley) is a tomboy who defies her English mother. Both of them have a thing for their Irish coach, Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers)-he of the wounded knee and the watery eyes. The movie is a hodgepodge: nicely barbed scenes with Jess's family bump against weird practice montages that play like sports-bra ads. What it all adds up to is multicultural empowerment for the pre-teen shin-guard crowd. -Michael Agger
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

"I'm Irish. Of COURSE I know what it feels like."
I almost missed seeing this wonderful little film on the big screen; I caught the last showing of the last day in our local art-house theater. I can't believe I almost robbed myself of the pleasure of seeing "Bend it Like Beckham", quite honestly my favorite movie to come out this year so far. It has action, romance, comedy, drama, lots of color and music and in the end a great message about acceptance and following your dreams. What more could you want?

Parminder Nagra stars as Jess, a Londoner of Indian descent who has loved playing soccer (or football, to the rest of the world) all her life. She lives and breathes her sport, so much so that every night she tells all her hopes and dreams to a giant poster of British soccer phenom David Beckham that hangs above her bead. Her parents, though, are less than approving, and when Jess uncovers a female soccer team that is willing to let her play in "real matches" she must weigh fulfilling her dreams against tearing her family apart. There is also the matter of her gorgeous Irish coach (Jonathan Rhys-Myers) and her new best friend (Keira Knightly); two girls and one cute guy can sometimes cause problems.

The script is more deeply layered than you might expect; I especially liked the interaction between Jess and her parents. Jess' mom is horrified by her daughter's passion because she feels nice Indian girls should be thinking of marriage and not "running around half naked in front of men", but her father for a subtler reason; he still remembers when he came to England and was not allowed to play cricket because of his race. He cannot bear the idea of sport breaking Jess' heart too.

The supporting cast is uniformly great; with standouts being Juliet Stevenson as the mother of Jess' new friend ("There is a reason Sporty Spice is the only one without a boyfriend!") and Jonathan Rhys-Myers as the coach. Rhys-Myers, in fact, spends what screen time he has looking incredibly sexy and practically daring the audience to call him on his Irish accent. Everyone else plays their roles to perfection and a good time is had by all, including the audience. Highly recommended!

GRADE: A-

Absolutely brilliant!!
What brilliant film! I absolutely adored it! Anyone who dismisses this film as a "soccer flick" definitely needs to give it a second look. Despite it's soccer-themed title, "Bend It Like Beckham" is a fabulous and heart-warming story about family, traditions, friendship, love, fulfilling your dreams, and - yes - soccer (or football to non-US audiences).

In the center of the story is Jessminder Bhamra (Parminder Nagra), a young Indian girl living in England who desperately wants to be a football (soccer) player. On the one hand, she is incredibly talented, but on the other, she has very traditional parents who believe that Jess should (a) go to university, (b) become a solicitor, and (c) marry a nice Indian boy. But Jess has dreams of her own and when she is approached by Jules Paxton (Keira Knightley) while playing soccer with the boys at a local park, she secretly joins Jules' local all-girls "football" team. Jules and Jess become close friends but conflicts arise when both girls fall for the same boy - their coach Joe (the handsome Jonathan Rhys-Meyers).

There are many, many highlights to this film. First of all, it is incredibly entertaining and funny. There are definitely parallels to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" as Jess' family life is thrown into chaos as they plan for her sister Pinky's "big fat Indian wedding" (complete with quirky, colorful relatives and friends). Secondly, it has a very talented cast led by newcomer Parminder Nagra (who is wonderful and earnest as the young woman in conflict between her dreams and her family traditions), the beautiful Keira Knightley (who will soon become a household name once "The Pirates of the Caribbean" opens this summer), handsome heartthrob Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (rumored to be in the running to be the next James Bond), the hilarious Juliet Stevenson (as Jules' prissy mom who is appalled that her daughter would rather play sports than go shopping with her) and Shaheen Khan (as Jess' no-nonsense mom who is equally appalled that her daughter would rather play sports than learn the finer art of Indian cooking). Thirdly, the production values, script and acting are top-notch, bringing to mind similarly quirky, enjoyable coming-of-age and feel-good films like "Muriel's Wedding" and "Princess Diaries."

I honestly cannot find fault with this film. I came into the theater without any pre-conceived expectations and came out loving it and wanting to see it again! This movie is definitely on my DVD must-have list. I can't wait to own it so that I can watch it again and again. Anglophiles, soccer fans and anyone who enjoys top-notch romantic comedies must see this movie. It is a film that crosses cultural boundaries and will make you smile and laugh from beginning to end. What a gem!

GOOAAALLLL!!!!!
There has not been a better feel-good movie released this year than Gurinder Chadra's "Bend It Like Beckham." Made up of equal parts "Monsoon Wedding" (moving the Hindu family from India to England) and "Breaking Away" (substituting soccer for cycling and girls for boys), "Beckham" is guaranteed to have you leaving the theater lighter of heart and step than when you entered. At the heart of the film is Jess (Parminder Nagra), whose love of soccer horrifies her devout Hindu family and even endangers her sister's wedding into an even more traditional family. Encouraging Jess is her new friend Jules (Keira Knightley), star of the local girls' soccer team, who tells entrancing tales of professional women's soccer in America. But their shared attraction to Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), the team's brooding coach, soon causes trouble. Meanwhile, Jules' prattling mother (Juliet Stevenson) starts jumping to conclusions about what she perceives as her daughter's masculine behavior. It's no surprise to know that all these conflicts get resolved happily, with whipped cream and a cherry on top. That's the pleasure of a movie like "Bend It Like Beckham;" you go to see something that will make you feel good, and you get it, only seldom do you get it done so expertly. (The set of "Beckham" must have been a happy place to work, judging from the outtakes shown during the end credits.) "Bend It Like Beckham" takes us to its own sunny little world, and for two hours persuades us absolutely of its reality, and of the possibility of realizing all your dreams. What could be more fun than that?