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Bend it Like Beckham is another feel-good indie sleeper, a low budget, ethnic comedy-drama that combines just about every possible fashion of formula and cliche imaginable. While it did not achieve Big Fat box office like Greek Wedding, it did rake in $32 million in the U.S. alone and even more overseas. Why do films like this work when the same exact movie, had it come out of the Hollywood factory, would have failed? I have no idea. Hollywood has been cranking out fluff like this for years, but if it comes from overseas or out of some little guy studio, it has to be better, right? Nope.

Bend it Like Beckham tells the story of a young, modern girl living with her family in England and who happens to be a talented soccer player. Unfortunately for her, she is Indian, and therefore anything unladylike, culturally speaking, is forbidden. Then she meets a British girl who plays for a local women's soccer team. Aforementioned Indian women hides her passion and sneaks out for some footy. Along the way is, of course, some romance, plus getting busted for playing soccer, girl talk, getting busted for playing soccer, lots of badly edited soccer action sequences, a wedding, getting busted for playing soccer and, of course, the eventual and incredibly random acceptance by her parents, after all of the getting busted for playing soccer.

Let it be said that everyone likes to feel good, especially the large group of ticket buyers that are comprised of women (and the men who let themselves be dragged along). And this movie is eager to please. The cast and crew all put forth great effort and seem generally goodhearted in their attempt at making a truly good film. But once you've peeled off the wrapper of a Kraft Single, the processed cheese always tastes the same.
So, back to my previous question, why was this film a hit?

With any film that comes from outside our confined and often unaccepting little American walls it is all about promotion, promotion, promotion. Bend It like Beckham reached North American shores at the Toronto film festival where it took second place for the People's Choice award. Then, it premiered at the Sundance film festival, nine months after it had premiered in its home country, the UK, and just about every other European nation. An ultra-limited release here followed in early March 2003, and the positive buzz mushroomed into mountains. Nevermind that the film is about America's least favorite and most misunderstood sport, soccer. Like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, herd mentality soon takes over and, well, you just gotta see it, because everyone else is, too.

To be sure, Bend it Like Beckham is a very nice story and a very nice little film. Yet it feels very average. We always want to root for the underdog, and this movie certainly is that. But despite all of the good intentions, it probably should be reserved for the soccer mom who only has female soccer kids.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Fox has brought Beckham home with an anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer. This film looks a little better than its budget might otherwise indicate. The wonderful costume design is displayed with reasonable color saturation, but there is also a crispness here more indicative of a pricier flick. Textures and other details are rendered very well and the only artifacts I noticed were a few spots of mild blocking. Edge enhancement is occasionally distracting, but the excellent fleshtones and black levels more than make up for that. The film source looked a tiny bit on the worn side as there were far more nicks, hairs and scratches that I'd expect to see such an infant film to contain, but they hardly detracted from the overall image. This is a slightly above average transfer and more than serviceable for this flick.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

An international success must surely contain international translations and presentations eh? Close, but not exactly. Here Fox gives us a English Dolby Digital 5.1 mix plus French 5.1 and Spanish 2.0 Dolby surround dubs. The English 5.1 track (recorded at 448 kbps) is one of those mixes that sounds like a really long music video. The pop soundtrack is reproduced brilliantly, across all channels, while the rest of the mix is a bit plain. There is the sporadic surround effect with the swooshing of soccer balls, but nothing that really challenged the back of the soundstage. Dialogue was always very crisp, clear and centered. As for the LFE range, it was superb in the few scenes it was allowed to boom, airplanes flying overhead or underscoring the pop music, but overall deep bass response was rather underrepresented. Overall, not a bad track but certainly more than enough for Beckham.

Also included are English and Spanish subtitles and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

This disc contains more than a handful of extras yet none of them really stands out. The novelty quickly wears off...

First up is a feature length, screen-specific audio commentary by director Gurinder Chadha and co-writer Paul Mayeda Berges. The two blather on quite a bit and often sound like this is their very first commentary, which I'm sure it is. We get a little bit of juicy insight but they seem so jazzed to be doing a commentary that, alas, they are their own best audience.

Next is Who Wants to Cook Aloo Gobi? "featurette." Here Gurinder Chadha spends 15 minutes showing us how to cook Aloo Gobi. Neat idea, and Gurinder is a cheery lady, but how many times will you watch this one? There is also a text recipe for Aloo Gobi. Another featurette, The Making of Bend it Like Beckham, is up next, and it also runs for just over 15 minutes. It is entirely comprised of chats with the actors and crew, complete with annoying narration. Perfectly ordinary.

Then we have a deleted scene gallery complete with "Play All” feature. There are ten scenes that are all fairly short and uninteresting, but at least presented in anamorphic widescreen. A music video is also included here, at least if you mean it is video that contains music. It plays like the end credits with the cast and crew mouthing, singing and dancing to the tune "Hot, Hot, Hot," culminating with a few minutes of a David Beckham and wife gag reel mouthing, singing and dancing their portion of the "video”. Yikes. Also here is a Bend it Like Beckham Music promo spot where Chadha endorses the soundtrack.

Last but not least we have three theatrical trailers, two international spots for Bend it Like Beckham and one for Antwone Fisher.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts