Whip It

OPENING: 10/02/2009

STUDIO: Fox Searchlight

RUN TIME: 111 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Be your own hero.

Opening Statement
Finally, for a genuine dose of warmth and joy you could do a lot worse than Whip It, Drew Barrymore’s exceptional directorial debut.

The Case
Ellen Paige stars as Bliss Cavender, a 17-year-old girl living in a small Texas town. Her somewhat overbearing mother (Marcia Gay Harden) more or less forces Bliss to participate in a series of beauty pageants, but she doesn’t find much joy in such affairs. One day, Bliss happens to see a group of women from a local roller derby team, and finds them (and their sport) fascinating. She tries out for the local women’s league, makes the team, and makes some colorful new friends. However, it’s going to be challenging to maintain her new passion without her parents catching on.

Whip It goes more or less where you expect it to in most instances, proving to be yet another sports film that leans on a reliable formula (underdog works hard, engages in training montages, suffers disappointments, ultimately makes it to The Big Game). Even so, Barrymore’s film is an exceptional viewing experience, offering a generous dose of thoughtfulness and realism that lends depth to what could have been a dull, by-the-numbers experience. It also helps that the casting is spot-on, from the distinct females who make up the roller derby league (Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, Eve, Zoe Bell, Barrymore herself) and the disheveled gentlemen lingering around the proceedings (Jimmy Fallon, Carlo Alban, Andrew Wilson), to Bliss’ conservative but nuanced parents (Harden and Daniel Stern). However, the movie belongs to star Ellen Paige, who demonstrates yet another side of her talent playing a character of both courage and fragility. Paige expertly handles a variety of complicated emotional scenes. Affecting, award-worthy stuff, Whip It is what you’d expect and much more.


The Verdict
8/10