Bend It Like Beckham

Light-hearted coming-of-age drama incorporating both gender and cultural issues that's short on subtlety but still manages a certain charm thanks primarily to the likeability of its central character.

With events being centred around football it's nice that the sporting scenes are initially generally well managed, being kept fairly brief and edited nicely enough to mostly appear realistic, though it does have to be said that the sporting climax is by far the weakest such scene and looks terribly staged. Another decent aspect is the soundtrack, which contains a good mix of both Indian tunes and popular Western chart hits.

The atypically British humour that's employed can admittedly feel rather clichéd (as does the course of the story) but it does manage to provide a few smiles along the way and although the film may use a broad brush to portray them the cultural aspects are ones with a basis in reality.

Some of the earlier dialogue does feel rather forced though and whilst the whole does generate a level of warmth toward it the journey is somewhat predictable, a little laboured at times and dare I say it slightly underwhelming.

Bend It Like Beckham is an enjoyable enough watch that delivers what its target audience is looking for with a central character that is easy to root for but it does feel somewhat dated and slight and as such I can only give it a