It's really refreshing to re-visit this film, 16 years later, lots of know British actors, the most famous of course being Keira Knightley. Perhaps football has moved on slightly for women and some cultural traditions too, but I'm sure both still have a relevance.

In a fair world, this wouldn't have had to be an indie movie. When I think about indie movies that got popular, I think about films like Juno, quirky and unusual films that came out at just the right time to strike a deep, fundamental chord with a mainstream audience. This film is not like that. It's a simple, straightforward story of two girls who love to play soccer.Then again, it is fortunate that this is an indie movie. Mainstream execs would have ruined this film. They are good at one thing: selling films to as big an audience as possible. That is not a crime, and saying it is their job, I have a hard time condemning them for doing it. But mainstream appeal comes at a cost: the soul of the film. Now I'm not saying big blockbusters cannot have a soul, but trying to convert a smaller film into a big blockbuster can drain it of what made it special in the first place.This film certainly is special. It's not spectacular- this is no MMFR or Godfather or Princess Mononoke- but it lifts itself above and beyond its genre contemporaries. The craft is excellent, from the cinematography to the use of music, and the writing is surprisingly spot-on.It is also impressively earnest. Many films of this genre have that studio sheen and professional smugness to them, as if they know they are exploiting their viewers for profit's sake. The quality of the films suffers for it. Typically, the people who write and direct these films are a generation or two older than their characters. If they care enough to put some effort into the film, this is either undetectable or inoffensive, but if they do not, things can get ugly real fast.This would have posed even more of a problem in this film's case. One of its two main characters is Indian. Studio execs have enough trouble handling foreign cultures in dramatic contexts. In comedic contexts, they are completely lost. This, along with racism and slavish devotion to traditional ideas of money-making, is one of three ways why they stay away from these sorts of movies entirely, and while that is heartbreaking and I'd love to see it change, I can't say it's comforting to see a big studio movie bumbling its way through a culture it does not understand. The end product is usually either bland and boring or, worse, stupid and insensitive.Thankfully, studio execs were not involved, and the filmmakers, who understand exactly what they're doing, handle their topics deftly and smoothly. This is not an esoteric film. You don't need a deep understanding of India, Britain, or Sikhism to like or understand this movie. But the filmmakers' knowledge informs on it heavily. They don't have to reach or shoot blindly into the dark. They know their playbook, they know what they're dealing with.This film is their baby. They put an unusual amount of effort into it. While not every sequence works, there is an air of grandeur and passion to the all thing. This is not to be confused with an air of pretension: this very much is a romantic comedy through and through. The filmmakers simply care about fleshing out their story and characters, making the experience interesting and thoughtful instead of half-baked and slapped together.The relationship between the two girls is stellar. Friendships are not often done well in films, but the playful, affirming chemistry between them is just great. While it does fall into clichés and contrivances, including a limp love triangle, its energy and fluidity and strength more than makes up for that. The way most hacks write friendships, it's a wonder they had friends at all- maybe they didn't. This film gets its two main characters and the relationships between them.If there is a villain in this film, it is binding, restrictive beliefs. The cultures these beliefs erupt from are not bad, but the beliefs themselves are, particularly when they stand in the way of dreams and hopes. More than soccer, this is a film about culture and how it defines groups of people. Jess' sister wants to have a nice Indian wedding and start a family, and that's fine. Jess wants to go to America and play soccer, and that's also fine. In an era in which so many are scared of losing their culture, this film shows that cultures are at their strongest when they interact with other cultures, swapping ideas and thoughts, helping everyone get the lives they want and strive for.

Bend it like Beckham was released 2002 and is a comedy, drama and romance movie about a teenage Indian girl rebelling against her parents. The movie was directed Gurinder Chadha ho I also known for 'Paris, je t'aime', 'Bride and Prejudice' and 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging'.Bend it like Beckham is about reaching your goals even if it means you need to bend the rules. The movie is based around Jesminder Bhamra for short she's called Jess. She's the daughter of a highly traditional family from India who do not understand her desire of playing football. For them learning to make food and getting a husband are more important then football. If the movie sounds cliché, it's probably because it is rather cliché. You could probably guess the ending of the movie accurate with what I've told you. The movie doesn't tell you much you did not know about Indian culture, and even worse it touches on homophobic attitude of religious cultures for 3 minutes and drops it for the rest of the movie. Why would you have a gay character if you were never going to anything with it? The movie also attempts to show racism but that's also barely touched on. The movie is obviously just a football movie with a lot of tacked on content to cover the lack of depth. Tacked on content isn't bad it's just when it's done half-way and about such important topics. The movies saving grace are the actors who do their best to give life to the two dimensional characters. It's rather hard to find one bad actor in the movie, but by no means is the writing their working with any good. The movie is overall predictable, cliché and a bundle of half-done side content. There is not real reason for anyone to watch the movie at all it adds nothing new ore fresh to the world. The movie feels from beginning to end like a shore and that's when a movie truly fails. Even children I can see getting bored by the movie, I can't recommend the movie to anyone at all open hearted. The movie over all gets three out of six. It's not bad it's just so cliché and so meaning less that there is no reason to kill time watching the movie.

Jess (Parminder Nagra) comes from a conservative Sikh family. Her mother worries about her daughters and maintaining a good family facade. Her sister is getting married, but her mind is on football. Jules (Keira Knightley) plays on a girls team, and recruits Jess after watching her in the park. Jess starts playing despite her family's misgiving.This is Keira Knightley's big break out indie hit. It's the start of her wider fame. But it's Parminder as Jess and her family that is more fascinating. The family traditions and pressures are at the heart of this movie. The one false note in the movie is the girlie drama with Jules getting jealous of Jess and couch Joe. It reeks of lesser teen fare. But the movie gets over it quickly and moves on. It gets back on firmer ground of family drama. This is a heart warming little film.