Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman

The most exhilarating movie so far this year. It's made up of many familiar elements -- think ''Monsoon Wedding'' meets ''My Beautiful Laundrette'' meets ''Personal Best'' -- yet before long, you catch on to how buoyant and funny and original it is.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Paula Nechak

Terrifically fun entertainment; wonderfully shot and acted, instilled with spirit and life and able to woo us with its exhuberant freshness.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Carrie Rickey

Pure, undiluted joy.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

I saw more important films at Sundance 2003, but none more purely enjoyable than Bend It Like Beckham, which is just about perfect as a teenage coming-of-age comedy.

Baltimore Sun by Chris Kaltenbach

A joyful celebration of spirit and endurance.

USA Today by Claudia Puig

The juxtaposition between the fast-paced plays on the soccer field and the color-drenched, music-infused wedding party is a highlight of this captivating film.

Premiere by Glenn Kenny

Terrifically charming and energetic film.

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

I'm still smiling as I recall Jess, the soccer star-to-be, standing behind her straitlaced mother in the kitchen and casually bouncing a head of lettuce on her knee.

Dallas Observer by Gregory Weinkauf

Bright, lively and liberating movie.

Washington Post by Desson Thomson

There's a great sense of fun in the cultural collision between Indian and British lifestyles -- often within the same person.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey

Energetic, eager-to-please culture-clash comedy.

Chicago Tribune by Mark Caro

Much of the value -- entertainment and otherwise -- of seeing a culture-specific movie is to connect with a larger world than your everyday life offers.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

Lightweight, thoroughly charming fluff.

Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov

There's nothing terribly bad about Bend It Like Beckham -- in fact it's a fine Friday-night-out film -- it's just that it strikes me as being an awful little piffle cloaked in the garb of something so much more.

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

Just a few years ago, the generally felt aspiration of ethnic groups was to blend in with the majority culture. Today it's to flourish in modern society while actively remembering old-country values...Bend It Like Beckham could cement the trend.

Salon by Stephanie Zacharek

Bend It Like Beckham is supposedly a movie about youth; its biggest shortcoming is that it rarely feels young.

New York Daily News by Jami Bernard

Director and co-writer Gurinder Chadha continues in the vein of her previous movies, "What's Cooking?" and "Bhaji on the Beach," exploring with humor and compassion how cultures adapt in foreign climes.