September 27, 2009
Review: Whip It
Take Your Daughter to Derby Day?
When I went to the preview showing of The Proposal it was sold out in both theaters, a fact which accurately predicted the movie's amazing run at the box office. If the half-full theater at last night's Whip It preview is anything to go by, this movie isn't going to get half the play that The Proposal did.
That's too bad, because Whip It is a pretty damned good movie. It also boasts a notably woman-centric pedigree. It's Drew Barrymore's directoral debut. Screenwriter Shauna Cross adapted her own novel about an Austin rolly derby team. The cast features a bunch of awesome actresses, and the plot is about female bonding and family -- basically the cinematic equivalent of chick lit. That's probably why no one's going to see it.
Ellen Page plays Bliss Cavendar, a seventeen-year-old girl living in Bo Dean, Texas. Bliss's alterna-spirit puts her at odds with her pageant-obsessed mother and football-loving father. When Bliss attends a roller derby it's love at first sight. She joins the Hurl Scouts, an Austin derby team, and suddenly she's Babe Ruthless, bonding with her teammates, hip-checking competitors, and defying her parents.
This movie is a lot like Bend It Like Beckham, if you set it in Texas and substitute roller derby for soccer. Just to be clear, that's a compliment. Despite my personal distaste for cookie-cutter family values, I like movies which manage to show believable, idiosyncratic family relationships.
Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis) meets Babe Ruthless (Ellen Page).
Basically, the movie alternates between action (derby competitions) and narrative, (Bliss's personal journey). The derby bouts are really fun. Most of the cast did their own skating, and the athleticism of the sport is truly impressive. The movie does a good job of incorporating a tutorial on the derby rules so the audience can really get into the suspense.
The narrative is a pretty standard sports story. The ending might be unexpected by Hollywood standards because it's almost too chick-friendly (read: competition isn't everything!). But this movie is character-driven at its heart. Luckily the stellar cast is up to the job.
