The story in Bend it like Beckham centers around Jess, an Indian girl who loves football star David Beckham and Jules, an English girl who befriends Jess after she observes her running circles around a group of young men playing football in the park.
Jess comes from a very strict Indian family where gender roles are clearly defined. Women are expected to learn to cook and care for their husbands, who are, of course, expected to be the sole breadwinners. This might be fine for Jess' older sister Pinky, however Jess has a dramatically different vision of her own future, and it doesn't entail settling down and cooking the perfect chapatti. Jess sees herself as a female version of her hero, David Beckham, competing in football rather than cooking for an acceptable Indian man as tradition dictates.
Jess secretly joins Jules' competitive women's football team, and is forced to lead a double life in order to not disappoint her parents and still play the sport for which she lives and breathes. Sneaking out to practices and traveling with the team to tournaments puts a strain on her home life. She must concoct outlandish lies to justify her absences from home. To complicate matters, she finds herself falling for her football coach, a guy who is off-limits for many reasons including the big one - he's not Indian and also her family do not approve which makes the audience feel sympathy for jess.
Love Actually
Love Actually is a story about several different couples in London, England that deal with love in various ways. They are all connected to each other in some way or another but have different sexual situations. It follows all of these people and their intertwining relationships through the 5 weeks leading up to Christmas. Some of the characters are falling in love, some are cheating on their spouse, some are falling out of love, and some are just with the wrong people. The main character is the newly elected Prime Minister of England played by Hugh Grant. He looks to be in his late twenties, he is white, heterosexual, and is most likely in the middle to upper class.
He falls in love with a member of his staff named Natalie who is very nervous when they first meet at his office. The Prime Minister has her let go from her job with him because he feels uncomfortable trying to work with her after an incident with the President of the United States. By Christmas Eve he regrets his decision of ex-communicating her and finds her by knocking door to door in her London neighborhood.
At the end we find out how the stories are all connected and it all involves even more love. However, one of the main problems in this romantic comedy is that it runs far too long at 2 hours.
Pride and Prejudice
In pride and prejudice The viewer is likely to find himself caught up in the worries of Elizabeth's mother, who is ever concerned about the matrimonial prospects of her five daughters, moved by the spitefulness of some of the persons Elizabeth encounters, and captivated by the hidden motives or half revealed lives of others. Moreover, besides being interesting on their own, each of these elements also contributes to the increasingly intense romantic feelings which dominate the movie.
Such emotions, which Wright arouses with his depictions of the mingled attraction and animosity Elizabeth feels for Mr. Darcy, as well as with his presentations of the latter's surprisingly shy and touching infatuation with the former, are thus so enhanced that the moviegoer is left with a poignant sense of the profound love these two come to share.
Fortunately, most of the individuals around whom the film's events revolve are nicely brought to life by the actors. While I cannot say that many of the performers are especially impressive, and a few do exaggerate somewhat, the majority of the members of the cast are enjoyable to watch. Keira Knightley, in particular, brings a real vivacity and charm to her role.
The films greatest weakness is its inclusion of a number of anachronistic touches. There are, for instance, times when the characters behave in very modern ways. Some of the young female protagonists are particularly liable to moments of defiance and vivacity which are more reminiscent of the behaviors of women of our own age than of persons from the time in which the film is set. While these various mannerisms, as well as a few comedic touches, do draw the viewer out of the Early Nineteenth Century, they also, very probably, make the characters more approachable than they would otherwise have been.
No comments:
Post a Comment