As you already know by now, some movies that I review in this blog have a link to The Good Wife in some way as in this case, an actress from it was in this movie. I plan to watch this movie and then give it a good recap of what it was like. I hope that you enjoy this.
We begin with what seems like an ordinary soccer game (or football for those in the UK, but I’m going to call it soccer). A woman named Jess make a goal and they start talking about her, but her mother is then getting interviewed and doesn’t like what her daughter is doing by playing on the field. It is revealed that Jess is just watching soccer and her mother tells her to come to her sister’s engagement party. She is sick of the wedding already despite it having not started.
The two sisters talk with their mother before going to a store. These are sisters of Indian decent. They are actually Indian and not Native American. Meanwhile, a white woman and her mother have issues as she goes out to play sports. The sisters then see a woman wanting her son to get married.
Jess is alone when she takes part in part of a field soccer game. Later, back in her room, she talks to her poster of Beckham when her father comes inside her room to talk for a bit. We then get to a largely attended engagement party. Jess goes back to play more field soccer with a bunch of men. We then see a woman, the white one from earlier, talk to Jess about playing for a team. This woman is named Jules. We then see the woman’s team gathered together.
Jess gathers for this game and is told by the male coach, Joe, that she can play. He isn’t quite sure that this is a good idea. Joe started a woman’s team after his knee was busted and Jules pestered her about why there was only a guy’s team. Joe ends up liking Jess play so he invites her back.
When given a uniform, she doesn’t want to put on her uniform shorts as the rest of the team welcomes her. She doesn’t want to show an injury around her leg. But it doesn’t affect her game. Joe convinces her to play. We see the women practice some including bending the ball.
Back at the field, the mother of Jess sees her in the park playing with men. She is scolded back at home. She says that she isn’t playing with men anymore, but will play with women. Her mother and father make it clear that she shouldn’t play at all. She talks with her male friend about this and he thinks that she should just play anyways and not tell her family.
Jess decides to defy her parents and play anyways. Jules knows about her parent’s disapproval saying that she shouldn’t take no as an answer. Her sister meanwhile isn’t being faithful to her fiancée. Or that is the impression that I’ve always gotten from that. Her sister knows that her job isn’t real so Jess then confesses the truth to her.
After shopping for shoes for playing the game, they wind up taken away from Jess. Jules decides to help out Jess by given her mother’s shoes to Jess for a moment. While at a bus stop talking about this, the parents of Jess’s sister’s fiancée (I don’t know names yet) think that she’s kissing an English guy and call off the engagement. That is when Jess’s secret of playing for the team is revealed by her sister. Her sister ends up breaking up her affair.
Jess stopped showing up for practice so Joe, learning that her parent’s disapproved of her playing, talks to them about this. Her father reveals that he had a past playing in a team, but things didn’t go well for him because of his Indian heritage. She decides to keep playing and joins the team on a trip to Germany. They don’t do well at one game with her failing to get a penalty shot. They actually had to redo that take over and over again as she kept making the shot when she wasn’t supposed to.
The father of Jess notices her being promoted in a newspaper that she somehow didn’t realize that she would be in. Did she not realize that a member of the press was taking their photo? Later at a club, the team is still dancing with Jess and Joe going out for a bit of a break. They almost kiss, but Jules sees this and gets upset, going away from them. Further worsening matters for Jess, her family is there to see her return from this trip.
Pinky, the sister of Jess (I think that’s her name), talks about being in love with Tig, the man that she was engaged to. Jess admits that she wants to date Joe, but Pinky doesn’t think that it would work since he isn’t Indian. Joe is Irish. But should she be dating her coach?
Jess and Joe talk about yesterday. They have different issues with their parents. His father was too hard on him which lead to him being injured. He doesn’t talk to his father just yet. He doesn’t want Jess to give up on things. Jess tries to make amends with Jules with the mother of Jules none the wiser about what is going on there. The mother of Jules hears only some of the conversation is becomes convinced that Jules is a lesbian and that Jess broke her heart. She gets emotional about this.
Later with her male friend, Jess claims that she wants an Indian boyfriend to cover for the fact that she is wanting to date Joe. He reveals that he is gay. His name is Tony. The still devious Jess pretends to be sick so she can return to playing soccer. Her father briefly returns to the house, not knowing where she is. At the game, he shows up to watch some of this. Despite some lingering animosity between Jess and Jules, they still work together pretty well in the game at times.
A confrontation happens at the game with Jess getting a red card for fighting back against a woman who first shoved her. She is scolded publically in front of the other players by Joe. She talks about this later privately with Joe. He thinks that the other player was out of order, but she overreacted. There was a slur used, but he understands. That is when her father reveals briefly that he is here.
The family of Tig returns to their house and the engagement is back on between him and Pinky. They decide to pick a new date for the wedding: the 25th. It seems too soon and conflicts with a game that Jess is going to play. But that’s the only date that will work for five months.
Jules is upset at Joe since she thinks that he is leaving the team and that there really isn’t an American scout coming to see them play. But he reveals that a scout is coming and was already there at the game in Germany. Jules goes to make amends with Jess, but is told that she won’t be able to play yet in the final game of the tournament.
The team prepares to do their final game without Jess while Jess and her family gets ready for Pinky’s wedding. Jess seems disinterested in everything. Joe stops by the house during the wedding party pre-celebration or whatever it is. Joe talks to Jess’s father. He doesn’t want her talents to go to waste. She notices that he is here and says that she will be starting at a university soon. Joe doesn’t want to give up on her. He thinks that it is lucky that her family cares a lot about her.
The day of both events arrive with both groups of people preparing for it. Tony arrives at the wedding and tries to get Jess to leave. Her father decides to let her leave for the second half of the game. He wants her to be happy on the video.
Jess gets her chance to play in the game, so she joins the team for the rest of the game. She gets a chance to do a penalty shot at one point, imagining it is her family that she has to bend the ball around. She is able to get the ball in and win the game. Her teammates then help her get redressed for the wedding. The scout is then introduced to both Jess and Jules.
The mother of Jules still seems to see things wrong, especially when Jules talks some about the game later. Jess has returned to the wedding in the meantime. The mother of Jules wants to go to the end of the wedding when Pinky is about to leave. Mrs. Paxton, the mother of Jules, causes a bit of a scene and confuses a lot of people by taking the “lesbian” shoes of hers back from Jess. Jules then has to explain that the fighting was about them both liking their coach Joe.
Back at their home, the women discuss the confusion that was going on as Jess decides that now is the time for her to be public about something. Tony lies about wanting to get engaged to Jess, but Jess stops this and tells the truth. She confesses that she both played in the game and that her father let her. She lets them know about the scout who gave her a scholarship to play in America. He explains his decision and why he shouldn’t have stopped playing earlier when people kicked him out.
Jess then talks to Joe about how she can play, but she can’t yet reveal her relationship with him yet as they wouldn’t yet survive. Later at the airport, Jess and Jules prepare to leave. Joe says that he had turned down coaching the men’s team so he can coach the woman’s team still. Joe and Jess finally kiss and leave for America until at least December. We briefly see some of the character’s futures going along in the world as we end the movie.
Now that we have gotten to the end, you have to wonder: what is the lesson of the movie? Is it teaching us the right lesson? On the surface, it may seem that the lesson is that you should ignore what your parents say until they cave in and do what you want. But I think that anyone who thinks that is the same type of idiot who thinks that the lesson of Shrek is that same must stay with same. I think that the movie’s message is more towards parents than their teen kids. It is a lesson in not holding someone back from their talents and what they are good at. The line “Parents don’t always know what’s best for you” is more or less the whole point of the movie. That’s why it takes first the father and then later the mother to understand what they should be letting their daughter do in the end.
I do like this movie or I wouldn’t keep watching it year after year. It does have confusing moments and some flaws, but it works for the most part. I recommend it at least once for those of you who haven’t seen it and want something to do with their time. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.
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