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Bend It Like Beckham
EMAILPRINTFox Searchlight Pictures

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 85 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by:
Gurinder Chadha
Paul Mayeda Berges
Guljit Bindra
Directed by: Gurinder Chadha
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 12, 2003
DVD: September 30, 2003
Running Time: 112 minutes, Color
Origin: UK / Germany
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for language and sexual content
Starring Parminder K. Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Anupam Kher, Archie Panjabi, Shaznay Lewis, Frank Harper, and Juliet Stevenson
A British film about a teenage girl named Jess (Nagra) living in London who must make a choice between following the traditions of her Indian family or pursuing her dream of becoming a soccer sensation. (Fox Searchlight)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Bride & Prejudice What's Cooking?
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The most exhilarating movie so far this year. It's made up of many familiar elements -- think ''Monsoon Wedding'' meets ''My Beautiful Laundrette'' meets ''Personal Best'' -- yet before long, you catch on to how buoyant and funny and original it is.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Terrifically fun entertainment; wonderfully shot and acted, instilled with spirit and life and able to woo us with its exhuberant freshness.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
The juxtaposition between the fast-paced plays on the soccer field and the color-drenched, music-infused wedding party is a highlight of this captivating film.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
I saw more important films at Sundance 2003, but none more purely enjoyable than Bend It Like Beckham, which is just about perfect as a teenage coming-of-age comedy.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Smart, lively and altogether warmhearted dramatic comedy.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
There's a great sense of fun in the cultural collision between Indian and British lifestyles -- often within the same person.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Rita Kempley
You seldom leave a theater walking on air, much less float all through a movie. But the joyous Bend It Like Beckham never lets you down.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
I'm still smiling as I recall Jess, the soccer star-to-be, standing behind her straitlaced mother in the kitchen and casually bouncing a head of lettuce on her knee.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Energetic, eager-to-please culture-clash comedy.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The feel-good movie of a feel-blah movie year, with all the positive qualities and one negative trait that this description implies.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Enjoyable enough that the sprinkles of artificial sweetness in the mix don't do lasting or irreparable damage.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
The film's most natural appeal is to adolescent athletes -- in particular, cleat-wearing young ladies who will bask in its hard-won girl-power message. This is a movie with bruised shins and a huge heart.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
As the movie breathlessly cuts back and forth from a boisterous wedding celebration to a high-stakes soccer match, even the grumpy cynics will have been won over.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Writer-director Gurinder Chadha juggles all the angles with flair and fairness. Like Nagra and Knightley, the movie is a sweetheart.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Like the rest of the film, Beckham's climax is surprisingly satisfying, however, in large part because director Gurinder Chadha films the competing big game and big fat Indian wedding of Nagra's sister with equivalently bursting levels of color, panache, and verve.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Fine character work by Juliet Stevenson, Archie Panjabi, and Bollywood regular Anupam Kher make this well worth seeing.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
Every generation has to discover the same clichés that were drummed into previous generations, and kids could do worse than to learn them from this film.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Rick Kisonak
The portrait of traditional Indian life Chadha provides manages to mine laughs from characters without resorting to making them laughable.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
Much of the value -- entertainment and otherwise -- of seeing a culture-specific movie is to connect with a larger world than your everyday life offers.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
An energetic, feel-good blend of comedy, romance and benign drama -- with a side dish of social commentary -- that works despite its strict adherence to the culture clash/generation gap formula.
Read Full Review >Variety Derek Elley
Writer-helmer Gurinder Chadha assembles a gallery of broadly played stereotypes into a movie about social attitudes that's more rooted in small-screen sitcom than anything deeper.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
The movie isn't unwatchable. It's clumsily good-natured, the actors are appealing, and there are worse ways to spend two hours than looking at pretty young girls in shorts kicking balls. But the movie is way, way too pleased with itself.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Darrin Keene
While this film offers plenty of laughs and a cool soundtrack, it also tiptoes around complex subjects of social change and inter-racial relations.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
There's nothing terribly bad about Bend It Like Beckham -- in fact it's a fine Friday-night-out film -- it's just that it strikes me as being an awful little piffle cloaked in the garb of something so much more.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Bend It Like Beckham is supposedly a movie about youth; its biggest shortcoming is that it rarely feels young.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Director and co-writer Gurinder Chadha continues in the vein of her previous movies, "What's Cooking?" and "Bhaji on the Beach," exploring with humor and compassion how cultures adapt in foreign climes.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Just a few years ago, the generally felt aspiration of ethnic groups was to blend in with the majority culture. Today it's to flourish in modern society while actively remembering old-country values...Bend It Like Beckham could cement the trend.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
Its cheery inoffensiveness, though, is in some ways disappointing.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
Only silent Becks himself rises unstained from this reheated ethno-niche stew.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 85 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
[Anonymous] gave it a9:
Great movie with plenty of humor. And I'm Indian, so I know how dead on the movie is about revealing Indian culture in the Western World. But my parents don't mind when I date white girls. Other than that, it's really accurate.
Patricia C. gave it a10:
What a brilliant film i love jonathan rhys meyers he is so hot and it just shows that women can play football hope there is going to be a second film.
Vinton H. gave it an8:
A movie that transcends cultural limitations and offers the hope that our common humanity will rescue us from parochialism.
Kristina D. gave it a10:
An immensely enjoyable film with lots of energy and wonderfully acted!
B. F. gave it a10:
i loved this movie it was great i want 2 get it on dvd.
B. C gave it a10:
This was an awesome movie. I reckon that some of you guys that gave it 0 just can't deal with the fact that girls can be independent. There definately should be a Bend It Like Beckham 2.
sara b. gave it a10:
I also like joe the coach he is bloody sexy.
