FILM REVIEW; Her Mom May Kick, But a Girl Plays to Win''Bend It Like Beckham,'' a genial ethnic sports comedy directed by Gurinder Chadha, was a big hit in Britain last year, and Fox Searchlight deserves credit for releasing it in this country with a title that will be, to much of the American audience, utterly incomprehensible. It certainly was to me, until a friend who had recently been in London passed on an explanation that had been given to him in a pub there. Beckham is David Beckham, star of the Manchester United soccer team (and the husband of one of the Spice Girls). The observation ''nobody bends it like Beckham,'' from which the title derives, apparently refers to his ability to curve the ball past the opposing goalkeeper. Jess's passion for soccer puts her at odds with her parents who, while not hidebound traditionalists, nonetheless think sports are an improper pastime for an almost- grown teenager with marriage and university to think about. So when Jess, recruited by her new best friend Jules (Keira Knightley), begins to train with the girls' auxiliary of a local football club, she precipitates a culture clash that ripples outward from her own household and becomes more and more complicated until the big game comes along to sort it all out. It is stuffed to bursting with affectionate stereotypes and the sticky, somewhat oppressive Gem. Chadha's previous movie, ''What's Cooking?'' made this point fairly explicitly, as it dropped in on the Thanksgiving dinners of a series of families - - Vietnamese, Mexican- American, Jewish and African- American - - living in the same Los Angeles neighborhood and struggling through a series of domestic crises. If ''Bend It Like Beckham'' had focused on Pinky rather than Jess, it might have been ''My Big Fat Sikh Wedding.''. Jennifer Lopez: 'There Are Worse Movies Than Gigli!' - Late Night with Seth Meyers - Duration: 4:09. Late Night with Seth Meyers 217,075 views. Sometimes when a movie does everything right, you don’t even think about how wrong it could have gone until after it’s over. Its cheery inoffensiveness, though, is in some ways disappointing. The South Asian diaspora has inspired some exceptionally clever and cosmopolitan movies from the likes of Hanif Kureishi and Mira Nair, and coming after ''Monsoon Wedding'' and ''My Son the Fanatic,'' ''Bend It Like Beckham'' seems like a step backward. Modern life, for the characters in Ms. Kureishi's films, is a vortex of contradiction and confusion, and their stories unfold with an appropriately swirling, dizzy rhythm. Chadha prefers the schematism of the sitcom, in which humor and pathos are carefully and predictably rationed, and people have the capacity to change but never to surprise. The girl- power plot is built, curiously enough, on a scaffolding of mild misogyny. Both Jess and Jules are held back by their shrill, overbearing mothers, who insist on outmoded norms of femininity while the dads, when the chips are down, are patient and supportive. Nagra, her mouth set in a pout of determination, has a charming, disarming directness that steers the movie through its easily foreseeable complications. But rather than risk allowing her characters to blossom into full human oddness, Ms. Chadha saddles them with cute mannerisms and binds them together with curlicues of plot, all of which are feverishly tied together by the end. It must turn out that all three are having communication problems with their parents, problems that will be happily solved after the big game, the big wedding and the big montage that conjoins them. Chadha's direction were as compulsive as the writing (she collaborated on the screenplay with Guljit Bindra and Paul Mayeda Berges), ''Bend It Like Beckham'' might have been tighter, funnier and, above all, shorter. It has some mildly risqu. Chadha, Guljit Bindra and Paul Mayeda Berges; director of photography, Jong Lin; edited by Justin Krish; music by Craig Pruess; production designer, Nick Ellis; produced by Deepak Nayar and Ms. Chadha; released by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Running time: 1. 12 minutes. This film is rated PG- 1. Bhamra), Archie Panjabi (Pinky Bhamra), Shaznay Lewis (Mel), Frank Harper (Mike Paxton), Juliet Stevenson (Paula Paxton) and Shaheen Khan (Mrs. Dutch (released in the UK and Australia as Driving Me Crazy) is a 1991 American road comedy-drama film directed by Peter Faiman (his second and last theatrical film. The Parent Trap Script Parent Trap Script by Ryan. THE PARENT TRAP Screenplay by Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer. February 21, 1997 THE PARENT TRAP. Seth Meyers, Writer: Late Night with Seth Meyers. Seth Meyers was born on December 28, 1973 in Bedford, New Hampshire, USA as Seth Adam Meyers. With Gabrielle Union, Danny Glover, Jessie T. Usher, Nicole Ari Parker. A dysfunctional family gathers together for their first Thanksgiving since their mom died. Alessandro Federico Petricone, Jr. Often cast as a villain, he is.
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