Leo Rechetniak
Offside- :Movie Review
I was really interested in this movie
when I saw the preview in class. It starts off with a father looking
for his daughter, who is in disguise as a boy and is trying to sneak
into a football match. Its a losing battle for the father, who is
overwhelmed by the bus's full of screaming football fans. He's
extremely worried for her safety; “they'll kill her”, he says in
the opening scene of the movie.
Its suspenseful, and all of the build
up makes you worried about the girl and what could happen to you. Her
disguise doesn't seem to be very effective, as the boys in the bus,
and trhe man selling merchandise who sold her a ticket all saw her
for what she was. She buys the ticket at a ridiculous mark-up and
looks for the way inside. Going through the gate is intense, and they
end u[ recognizing her as a girl almost immediately, and is caught
trying to run away. A guard leading her away asks to borrow her cell
phone and its actually pretty funny as he gets a call back from a
girl and argues on the phone, making it seem realistic. She's not the
only prisoner, and not the only girl, in a temporary jail cell. The
guards don't seem to be as intent on killing her as her father made
it out to be, but seems to be more about keeping her out of trouble.
The prisoners manage to convince one of the guards to at least
commentate on the game. One of the guards is empathetic to the girls,
while the other is less pleasant.
Overall I found this movie both funny
and thought-provoking. I didn't expect the humor aspect to pop up as
much as it did. The guard who takes one of the girls to the bathroom,
disguised under a poster, is hilarious; he single-handedly tries to
hold off a dozen soccer fans from going into the bathroom while she
is using it(before she manages to escape). Its an extremely clever
movie showing that foreigners can be just as crazy, if not crazier,
about their sports as people in the United States.
Not only does is seem realistic or even
improvised, but the characters perfectly fit into the movie. It makes
its point about woman's rights while keeping it light and
entertaining. It's sad when the girl explains that she was never
interested in football, but wanted to attend a match to honor the
memory of a friend of hers killed during a recent soccer match. The
sadness is overshadowed by celebration as Iran wins the match against
Bahrain and the soldiers and girls join the people celebrating. When
searching for the film I was interested to read that the film makers
had two different endings planned depending on the outcome of the
match, since it was filmed at a real stadium during and actual game,
making the filming process even more impressive. Overall 4.5 out of 5
stars.
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