Director: Gurinder Chadha
Year Released: 2002
Rating: 1.0
Oh boy, more of the old "Parents just don't understand" sitcom stuff - two footballers have to defend their love of 'a man's game' from their fuddy-duddy folks, who are there to act old and out of it and make problems for everyone. Basically a giant movie of misunderstandings, where every action is interpreted by some outside observer as being something else - the girls are thought to be homosexuals, Ms. Knightley is taken for an English boy - and believe me, snooping people are everywhere: behind buildings, peering around corners or just plain cruising around and looking for shenanigans. I understand that it's populist feel-good stuff ("Just do it!"), but Chadha's handling of her characters' sexuality ("No, I really like Beckham") and the family's religious piety (they're made to look like caricatures instead of actual human beings - see also My Big Fat Greek Wedding) is sloppy. I'm guessing Juliet Stevenson, weeping and distraught as ever, still hasn't gotten over Alan Rickman's fictional death.
