The Bronze
In 2004, Hope Ann Greggory became an American hero after winning the bronze medal for the women's gymnastics team. Today, she's still living in her small hometown, washed-up and embittered. Stuck in the past, Hope must reassess her life when a promising young gymnast threatens her local celebrity status.
-
- Cast:
- Melissa Rauch , Gary Cole , Thomas Middleditch , Sebastian Stan , Cecily Strong , Haley Lu Richardson , Dale Raoul
Similar titles
Reviews
Slow pace in the most part of the movie.
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.
The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Her over-the-top 'acting' got so tedious that I never did watch the end. She tried way too hard to be the exact opposite of her Big Bang Theory character that she only succeeded in becoming obnoxious and totally unlikable. Poorest acting outside a high school senior play. You found yourself not only disliking the character, but actually wishing she would disappear. Now, if that was the point of the movie, then congrats. They got it right. But if they expected the audience to have any empathy for her, they definitely blew it. She's played the 'Bernadette' character of TBBT for so long, she doesn't remember what acting is supposed to be.
I think this movie really missed it's target audience. While it is breath of foul mouthed air in the usually formulaic and insipid gymnastic movie genre, it goes too far with the raunch. I think if they had pared back the language and nudity to a PG-13 level and replaced it with more character development and heart, they could've been competing for the Gold. Okay, enough of the gymnastic metaphors. Some of this stuff was staring them in face. I mean, they create a central character who's totally self-centered, lacking in schooling and social skills. They could've given her a great scene and a large amount of redemption by revealing her Olympic training robbed her of childhood. She didn't get proper schooling, only had rivals, never friends, never learned how to relate to other people and because of her early victory, was never was allowed to grow up. It was right in front of them but they never go there. As a result Hope lacks depth and the movie doesn't really deliver a satisfying ending. Given that most gymnastic movies target girls who are of age to be learning gymnastics, the language goes too far and the sex scene while being sort of funny is way too graphic for a family with children to watch. They could've accomplished the same goals the movie strives for with a little less of the language and sex and a little more heart. Still, it's a good movie and a fun watch, it's just it could've been very good.
I avoided this movie because I saw a clip of the very raunchy looking "scene." I came across it tonight and I was blown away. It is subtle comedy, and yes, it is crass. But it is not crass in the way other movies (like Trainwreck- which I hated) do it to get a laugh. The laughs come from the situations. The character is a spoiled, self-centered, a-hole who cannot accept that her glory days are over (imagine the washed out small town high school quarterback). This is her attitude, her tough-as-nails, no b.s, cause I'm a winner kind of loser. The closest I can compare this is to Danny McBride in "Eastbound and Down." So if you like that kind of humor: the kind of pathetic jerk who can't see themselves as anything other than a champ and ends up getting a little heart (and pride kicks) along the way then you will probably enjoy this.
Contrary to the negativity of the title of my review, I found The Bronze to be both moving at times, and at other times funny. Not hilarious, but just funny in a surreal, this could never actually happen way. I give it 9 out of 10 at a time when interesting characters are just AWOL from the big screen.Not so with Hope. She is genuinely interesting in a kind of "hate her but can't stop thinking about her" way.The theme of this film has been done before many times. I prefer to liken it to The Wrestler than Blades of Glory. The film is definitely satirical, but not comic satire. It is much too gritty. Particularly for anyone who lives in small town Ohio (or any part of the country today) looking at the ghosts of their one-time dreams on the wall. Unlike a film like The Natural, where the washed up "wunderkind" comes riding in with a halo over his head to bail out the home town underdogs, in this film Hope rides in via the plush leather bucket seats of a "vintage" Buick, and clearly she has horns instead of a halo. That villainous exterior is what essentially makes her character so interesting.The problem is that in an attempt to sell this film to millennials, it has to transport this interesting, complex character to an episode of Family Guy, piling raunchy joke on top of raunchy joke. And as a result, for all it's brilliance, this is not the kind of R rated film you can every sit down and watch with even your teenage children. The sex scene is funny, but far to graphic (and needlessly). As are the many gratuitous sexual reference throughout the film and the non-nonchalant glorification of drugs.For a family comedy about a female protagonist trying desperately to hang on to some existential validation through past victory, and behaving badly in the process, I would recommend Butter. For a film you want to watch late at night when the kids are asleep, for the experience of periodically picking your jaw up off the ground, The Bronze delivers.