Bend It Like Beckham [HD]

"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...

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...

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...

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