Bend it with charm

The spry, feel-good movie Bend It Like Beckham, a smash hit last year in its native England, arrives in The States facing some uphill battles. First of all, much of the plot hinges on the suspenseful dynamics of the cutthroat game of … soccer, a sport that doesn’t how to put this delicately? engender the same sort of rabid fanatical passion on this side of the pond. The film also deals with some pre-Title IX attitudes toward women in sports that may seem old-fashioned in a country where women’s sports (particularly soccer) raise few eyebrows. Even the film’s title refers to Brit ‘football’ superstar David Beckham, who’s hardly a household name in America.

Bend It Like Beckham boasts such rare, genuine charm, however, that such cultural incongruities shouldn’t matter much. The plot follows Jesminder (Parminder K. Nagra), a teenager in an affluent London suburb, who dreams of playing professional soccer. She’s talented enough to shame the guys who kick the ball around in the local park. She even carries on conversations with the Beckham poster that adorns her bedroom wall (sort of like Emily Watson’s conversations with God in Breaking the Waves, or something).

Jess’ tradition-bound Indian émigré parents provide plenty of well-intentioned obstacles: her mother (Shaheen Khan) is more interested in teaching her to cook traditional Punjabi meals and her dad (Anupam Kher) is acutely aware of racism in the world of sports. Jess’s new friend Jules (Keira Knightley), however, convinces her to join a women’s soccer team, which she does behind her parents’ back.

The better Jess gets, the clearer it becomes that she’ll have to tell her family the truth eventually (especially when she needs money for new shoes, or the team takes a trip to a tournament in Germany). The movie throws in a love triangle between Jess, Jules and the hunky Irish coach (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who technically isn’t allowed to date either of them; a climactic wedding (for Archie Panjabi as Jess’s shopaholic sister); and Jules’ shrieking airhead mum (Juliet Stevenson), who hilariously becomes convinced that the soccer mates are lesbians.

Director Gurinder Chadha (What’s Cooking?), who co-wrote the script with Paul Mayeda Berges and Guljit Bindra, has created a formula movie that never deviates from the most predictable plot complications and developments. But she also pulls off the neat trick of making the inevitable seem earned; you want these characters to get past their dilemmas and succeed in the end.

Nagra, who was 26 during the shoot but is petite enough to pass as a teenager, has an easygoing appeal, as does the gorgeous Knightley. Stevenson, meanwhile, delivers a hilarious portrait of maternal hysteria. Some of the gags are a bit too broad (i.e., old Indian ladies in traditional dress whipping out their cell phones at a family meal), but the film’s skill and confident warmth give it that feel-good crowd-pleaser charm. The climax, which cuts between Jess’ sister’s wedding and Jess’ final soccer game, pulsates with an unexpected energy. Don’t be surprised if the audience cheers at the end.