The
little town of Amherst, Ohio, population 12,112, bills itself as
“Sandstone Capital of the World.” It's the setting of THE BRONZE, an independent comedy starring Melissa Rauch, the mighty
four-foot-eleven actress from the TV sitcom The Big Bang
Theory. Rauch wrote the script with her husband, Winston
Rauch (who took her surname name when they married). Bryan Buckley
directed.
A
favorable tax credit enticed the production to Ohio, and the crew
availed itself of the historic city's quaint downtown and residential
neighborhoods in 2014. Amherst's mayor, David Taylor, was delighted,
telling the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram,
“This is the first time Amherst has ever had something of this
magnitude. We're very excited about it.”
That
authentic small-town feeling is one of the more endearing qualities
of THE BRONZE,
an uneven film that's both charming and egregiously raunchy. Rauch,
best known as the squeaky-voiced scientist Bernadette on Big
Bang Theory,
plays Hope Annabelle Greggory, a onetime Olympic gymnastics bronze
medalist who lives in the eternal past, moving sullenly around town
in her warmup suit and availing herself of free sundaes and other
perks based on her long-ago accomplishment.
The
town, for its part, happily accommodates her. So proud is Amherst of
its medalist that her name hangs on the “Welcome to Amherst”
sign, and there's a parking spot reserved for her downtown, on a
street that still has a Ben Franklin five-and-dime.
Hope
lives with her long-suffering dad, Stan (Gary Cole), a mailman who
caters to his daughter's every desire, even though she curses at him
like a drunken stevedore. Her days consist of watching videos of her
old gymnastics triumphs, while masturbating; crushing and snorting
over-the-counter pills, smoking pot; cadging free food from Sbarro at
the mall; and yelling at her dad, breaking into his truck to steal
cash from mail envelopes. (Does anyone still send cash in the mail?)
Stan
tolerates his daughter's abuse because he feels sorry for her. Her
mother died when she was an infant, and her gymnastics career was cut
short by an injury. He tries to coax Hope into getting a job, but she
prefers to rage and steal and coast on her fading fame.
Hope's
local celebrity status is threatened by a promising (if improbably
chubby) young gymnast, Maggie Townsend (Haley Lu Richardson), who
idolizes Hope.
Fate binds them together when Hope's celebrated former
coach dies, and a condition of her will requires Hope to coach Maggie
toward a championship. “I'd rather die than coach that loser,”
Hope snarls, though a promised half-million-dollar inheritance
persuades her to take the job.
At
first, Hope is more interested in sabotaging Maggie than in coaching.
She encourages Maggie to eat junk food until her belly bulges in her
leotard, gives her marijuana smoothies, and generally tries to
corrupt the ebullient, God-fearing girl.
Circumstances
force hope to get serious about coaching. She begins imparting her
hard-won expertise to her protégé, not only about gymnastics but
about projecting a saucy personality to impress the judges. “Sell
it to the bitch-ass judges!” she barks. Soon “Mighty Maggie” is
on her way to the Olympics.
Maggie's
new life as a coach is a journey into her past. She finds an ally in
old acquaintance Ben, who owns the town's struggling gym and is
afflicted with a severe facial tic. There's also Hope's old nemesis,
Lance Tucker (Sebastian Stan), a slick gold-medal gymnast who's
competing with her to be Maggie's coach.
The
movie wobbles along as if unable to decide whether to be small-town
satire, romantic comedy or balls-out raunchfest, the nadir of which
is a bizarrely athletic sex scene between two gymnasts. Hope is
nonetheless an interesting creation, and Rauch plays her well, with a
low-register voice and Sarah Palin-like accent. Unfortunately, the character is so mean it's a little hard to believe her late-act
transformation.
Charming
performances are the movie's salvation. I was particularly taken with
Thomas Middleditch's sweet, virginal Ben, who's so smitten with Hope
he arranges a date with her in a closed shopping mall and doesn't
mind that she calls him “Twitchy.” 3 out of 4 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We approve all legitimate comments. However, comments that include links to irrelevant commercial websites and/or websites dealing with illegal or inappropriate content will be marked as spam.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.