Melissa Rauch co-wrote this movie with her husband and stars as the main character Hope Greggory. In her heyday, Hope won the Bronze medal at the Olympics after a horrible injury to her ankle and is still revered in her home town. Due to the recovery time for her injury, she was never able to compete again, and hasn’t gone on to do anything else with her life. She still wears her warmup gear every day, and spends all of her time at the mall, getting free food at restaurants in town, and stealing money from birthday cards in her mailman father’s truck.
Her bitterness over not being able to compete again is taken out on everyone around her, especially her father. There are a few moments- like when Hope gives money to a man at the mall with a broken wheelchair, and when she catches a glimpse of her old coach- that hint at a decent person deep (really deep) down. Those moments are few and far between, however, and Hope Greggory is pretty much an awful human being. But I’d be lying if I said that some of her mean one liners weren’t damn funny. Maybe the theater I was in was full of terrible people, but we were all laughing. Melissa Rauch really goes for it, and you can tell she has a fondness for the character, however foul-mouthed and rude she may be. And why shouldn’t she? Hope is her creation after all.
The humor is crass, there’s no doubt about it, and the movie pushes it pretty hard. So if that’s not at all your kind of thing you may not enjoy what this movie has to offer. The plot that unfolds is pretty straightforward: Hope’s old coach tragically commits suicide, and shortly after that Hope receives a letter from her stating that if she agrees to takeover coaching the town’s new gymnastics prodigy Maggie, she will receive $500,000. Maggie is adorably enthusiastic about working with Hope, who she has looked up to her entire life. But Hope isn’t having any of it. Wanting to fulfill her coaching duties as quickly as possible, she decides sabotaging Maggie is the way to go, hoping that she won’t make it through National Championships and will quickly quit.
In addition to the horrible dietary advice, Hope tries to distract Maggie with a boy, and even slips weed into her smoothie. When an Olympic recruiter (Sebastian Stan) tries to steal Maggie away and Hope finds out that this will leave her without the chance to collect her money, Hope decided to actually put effort into coaching.
She’s actually really good at it when she puts her mind to it, and despite herself enjoys her time with Maggie. Fellow gym employee Ben (Thomas Middleditch) also softens Hope somewhat. She calls him Twitchy, because of a facial tic he has, and yet he somehow is able to see the good in her. He takes her on a date to the mall food court after hours because he knows it’s her favorite place to eat. He even uses the candle kiosk for mood lighting. Then there’s this little moment.
A windswept phoenix?! He’s basically the sweetest sweetie.
Sebastian Stan is really great as the douche-tastic former Olympian Lance Tucker. I hope he gets the opportunity to do more comedic work, he’s well suited for it. In his first scene, Hope is still being so terrible to Maggie that Lance seems like he’s not that bad in comparison. That thought is quickly dispelled, and he reveals himself to be one of those guys. You know the kind. He thinks he’s the hottest shit ever. Haley Lu Richardson plays Maggie with precious naiveté, and Gary Cole nails the midwestern dad vibe as Hope’s father.
Now, let’s get to it. The scene. The one people have been talking about since the movie screened at Sundance 2015. Hope and Lance get drunk one night and have sex in the way that only two former Olympic level gymnasts could. There is summersaulting, pommel horsing, and cartwheeling all over the place. I knew it was coming, but I wanted to see how someone who was taken by surprise by it would react, so I told my friend nothing. It is every bit as crazy hilarious as promised. Everyone in the theater cracked up, at first from shock (apart from me of course), and because it really is just that insane. My friend texted me a few days later to tell me that a gymnastics competition was on TV in a bar, and she couldn’t look at it the same way. So yeah…it leaves quite the impression.
Check out the theaters in your area to see if The Bronze is playing. (It’s playing slightly bigger than a limited release, but on the smaller side of a wide release, so you’ll have to check.) If you and a friend have had dinner and a few drinks and are looking for an enjoyable time at the movies, I think you’ll have fun.
