Saw Bend It Like Beckham last night, with B. For a film that promotes itself as son/daughter of Bridget Jones, it's disappointing. Cute(ish), funny(ish, but stereotypical) and ultimately lacking the depth of other cross-cultural movies like Monsoon Wedding or East is East. I came away from Monsoon Wedding moved and thinking about the multi-layered issues represented in the film. I came away from East is East thinking that they had exactly the same kitchen as my parents in 1973 (including seventies swirly mugs). And touched.
But, for me, Bend it Like Beckham had a first-draft quality. First, the phrase "bend it like Beckham" occurs twice in the movie, giving the dialogue an extrutiatingly laboured feel. Whilst there are great gags (dressmaker: "I can make those little mosquito bites look like ripe melons"), lots of the humour seems caricatured. I can't help feeling that if I was sikh/asian I'd be cringing as much as when I see Maureen Lipman as Beatie in the old BT ads. Cosmo Landesman said "the acting's bad, the football's worse", and I'm inclined to agree with him.
Know what I hate about the cinema nowadays? The trailers are often better produced than the movies, and they generally have all the best bits in them. So The Royal Tenenbaums was a huge disappointment to me, becuase the trailer was a fast paced comedy, but the actual film wasn't. But enough ranting. Final rating: MISSABLE. WAIT FOR VIDEO.
IMDB Ephemera: Didn't realise till I IMDB'd, that director Chadha's last (UK released) movie, What's Cooking was him. No comparison; fabulously drawn characters, great plot, excellent third act and story tension to die for. Apparently he directed Are You Experienced, based on the William Sutcliffe book in 2001, but no sign of it in the UK.
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