DIRECTED BY: GURINDER CHADHA
STARRING: GEORGIA GROOME, ALAN DAVIES
BEND It Like Beckham writer-director Gurinder Chadha serves up a perfectly serviceable British tweenie movie here, one geared towards entertainin
g 11-14 year old girls – and their mums – without forcing anyone to check their brains or self-esteem at the door. Georgia Groome – who made an astonishing debut as a teenage runaway in the harrowing London to Brighton – stars as the film's 14-year-old heroine, Georgia, a mixed bag of brash self-confidence and paralysing insecurities whose sudden fixation with the dreamboat new guy at school sends her hormones and everything else about her a little crazy.
Classic coming-of-age shenanigans duly follow as Georgia's obsessive crush, her attempts to understand boys and her elaborate schemes to make them like her, lead to plenty of romantic entanglements not to mention bust-ups with her best friend and her parents. The comedy is probably a little broad for older audiences and teen speak may feel a little try-hard – it probably worked better in the best-selling books by Louise Rennison upon which the film is based – but Georgia and her friends do eventually win you over once the film settles down and finds its rhythm. There's an amusing in-joke involving Beckham-star Keira Knightley too.
