Whip It (2009)

WHIP IT

DIRECTED BY: DREW BARRYMORE
WRITTEN AND NOVEL BY: SHAUNA CROSS
OVERALL SCORE: 6.25/10

Drowned by her mother's beauty pageant dreams, Bliss (Ellen Page) seeks out the world of women's roller derby as an escape. As she slowly becomes a hit in the circuit, she must balance her friends, new boyfriend, and sudden popularity with her family's old school values, and high school friends.

I've said it in the past, and little has changed since, I was very wary going in to watching this movie. It's plot really didn't scream out to me, but I figured it would be a solid 2 hours of entertainment. And ultimately that's about all I got. You see, for all its best efforts, Whip It is a fun film, caught in a very generic plot with cardboard characters, and lots of over the top characters. I feel as if for every entertaining moment there's another movie out there that's done it, and done it much better. And while I hate that argument, it can be an overbearing feeling, especially while watching coming of age sports movies.

That's not to say the movie does anything necessarily bad. Ellen Page delivers her premium performance you'd expect, and the rest of the cast hovers around decent. Most characters are more caricature than anything, especially when it comes to Juliette Lewis and Drew Barrymore. They gain a couple of laughs, but I found them rather bland, and annoying, at times. I'd like to think there was something more to their characters than there is, but ultimately they're just prototypes. Kristen Wiig and Marcia Gay Harden (whose eyebrows are slowly approaching Hugo Weaving level) were refreshingly well handled characters with some depth. While I'm always game for a Daniel Stern appearance (love Home Alone). Still, I say this all the time, I could do without a Jimmy Fallon... in anything, ever.

As for her first time directing effort, Drew Barrymore shows a knack for not getting in the way of the acting. She also handles the derby sequences rather nicely, even though they often feel a bit disconnected. With some more efforts I believe Barrymore can become a solid film director, there's definitely the prowess there, but she may do well to learn how to highlight moments (most "big" scenes in the film felt about the same as other scenes). And the writing, Shauna Cross handles it, though it can be a bit repetitive, it carries the film just fine. Though I do wonder if the characters are given more depth in the novel...

Even with some solid entertainment power, and pro strong-women stance, Whip It is weighed down by a collection of mediocre characters, and generic moments that never feel as real as they should.