Bend it like Beckham

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Welcome!  You have movies! | Dawn of the Dead | Bend it like Beckham | Airplane Redux

A movie reflected upon years after the fact | The Last Samurai | Lord of the Rings | B-Grade Action: The Recruit | The Pianist: not what you'd expect...and that's a good thing | Lost In Translation | Spy

On from this to Bend It Like Beckham.  Not in the same category, but a nice, formulaic piece to come slithering out of the UK about and Indian girls battle with her traditional family to become a soccer (football) star.

I don't know what it is about films of this genre like Billy Elliot that spend about half of the time apologizing and explaining that just because a boy/girl isn't into sports/clothes doesn't mean that they are gay/lesbian.  There is nothing wrong with making that a point in the story, but there is such thing as overkill to the point where it becomes an ABC after-school special.  Bend It doesn't really raise the stakes that much outside of one uptight mother worried that her daughter has turned to the gay side...and that woman is so narrow-minded that nobody really cares what she thinks anyway.  Its like asking a bigot what they think about blacks, and expecting any normal person to regard this character as a force to be reckoned with...outside of Louisiana, that is. 

It's cute down to the big game and all that.  You know where its going.  You've seen the Mighty Ducks and the Bad New Bears.  You can't make any sports movie without THE BIG GAME.  I'm not revealing anything to you, the audience by making this assertion, so let this be your yard stick.  If you are a person who demands that your movies undercut convention by not having the big game, I don't want to hear you whining.