Anita & Me

I haven't read the book - apparently it's excellent - but the film tries and fails to be another Bend It. Anita is not a 3D character as played here, and Meena is not as engaging as she should be. The parents are both well-portrayed, and I think Kathy Burke steals the film, although Meera Syal runs her close as the over-powering aunt.There are lots of nice touches, and good lines, but you're left feeling short-changed. The script is a bit thin, and I think there's too much reliance on gags, and not enough on filling in the characters. The music soundtrack doesn't improve the film, although some of the songs were a nostalgic blast. I subscribe to the school of thought that says use music only where it adds to the overall experience; otherwise don't bother. I certainly enjoyed it, and rate it 6 out of 10 for its simple entertainment factor. However, whereas I can watch "Bend It" again and again, I will not return to this film.

I find it refreshing to see a film that contains an insight into other cultures.

I found it had a similar foundation as East is East; if you care to share my feeling of the film, Anita and Me was nice and sweet, while East is East was salty.

The story is indeed a solid piece of work. It tells the life of a 12-year-old girl living in the East Midlands in 1972, where she is discovering a more advanced way of life - teenage angst in other words.

The cast were superb - fine piece of acting from those familiar BBC faces. It is such a shame that the film will be forgotten.

Choose this instead of James Bond (Die Another Day clashes with this at the cinema) - at least you get to see James Bond every Bank Holiday Monday.

The story of a young Asian girl growing up in Britain, Anita and Me will be bracketed with Bend It Like Beckham but is far superior. It's as brilliantly-scripted as About A Boy or Bridget Jones, without any of the advantages that those movies had in terms of budget, glamour and style. Particularly surprising and welcome was the fact that the film didn't feel obliged to smooth out the rough edges, for example by making Anita worthy of Meena's worship. It's this surprising integrity that makes an ostensibly lightweight film into something more substantial. It works on every level and is highly recommended.

I thought this was going to be a re-run of yet another East meets West type movie but I was pleasantly surprised and impressed. Based on a novel by Meera Syal who also writes the film's screenplay, it follows the funny but often very moving coming-of-age of Meena, an above-average intelligence girl of Indian family living in a small East Midlands village. She teams up with Anita, the local (white) glam girl tear-away and the movie charts their firm friendship as they struggle individually with adolescence, family difficulties and the racism of peers. This is a wonderful and quite uplifting movie.

I went to see this movie because it wasn't Harry Potter or Bond, and I felt I should support the currently subdued British Film industry, but was very glad that I had. One of the best films I've seen so far this year - certainly better than most of the blockbusters so far.

I found it an excellent film with a nice blend of pathos and belly laughs, the poignant mixed with the comedic. I found Chandeep Uppal, as the lead, Meena, gave an excellent performance and deserves to go onto other things. Many stalwarts of British comedy; Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal, Kathy Burke, Mark Williams ... also gave solid performances. Of course, having grown up in the area it was set in I found myself identifying with the film more - wondering if the Queen Elizabeth Grammar school was the school I attended with the name changed; wondering if my family was ever part of the 70s Walsall tupperware set.

My problem came with the screening itself - seeing it on the Wednesday after the Friday release we were on one screen with 2 (evening) screenings on the smallest screen in the cinema (which was incidentally, mainly full). The previous week, I had seen Harry Potter, at about the same time, in the largest screen, and there were probably less than 30 people there, as it had been showing intensively every half an hour (and continues to). Most of the rest of the screens in the cinema were taken up with Bond. Come on British cinemas; push our own homegrown films a bit more - there's a lot of talent there but we've got to be able to see it.