What a wonderful movie. Whip It stars Ellen Page in her first lead role since her Oscar-nominated performance in Juno. This time around she plays Bliss Cavendar, an intelligent outsider searching for stability in the doldrums of small-town, high school life. Bliss has been playing along with her mother’s idea of opportunity by participating in pageants and mother/daughter brunches in their small Texas town of Bodeen, but it’s clear by her hair-dying defiance that she’d rather be anyplace else. Then, on one fateful shopping trip to nearby Austin, she sees some roller-derbying chicks skate into the store to drop off some flyers. Bliss nabs one up. She’s found her niche.
Before long, she’s tried out for and made the Hurl Scouts, a roller derby team whose members include Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig), Rosa Sparks (Eve), Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell), and Smashley Simpson (Drew Barrymore). Bliss tells her parents (played by Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Stern) that she’s taking an SAT class but instead reinvents herself as Babe Ruthless, a speedy, quick-hitting roller girl whose found a family of empowered women with whom to bond.
The story is simple enough. It is a coming-of-age sports movie with typical plot points. The only significant hiccup is a side story involving Bliss finding and then losing love, hallmarked by an underwater scene that is a bit overplayed. Literally. You can’t breathe underwater that long. Other than that, Whip It is the sort of movie that puts a smile on your face. The coach of the Hurl Scouts is played by Andrew Wilson, who looks a bit like brother Luke and sounds more like other brother Owen, and he is consistently funny. Even Jimmy Fallon, who is better in small doses (check out his role in Almost Famous), gives a good performance as the announcer at the derby matches. Of course, it is Ellen Page who has the most to do, and she does the most with it. Though she will be able to play a high school kid for a few more years, it will be nice to see her in more mature roles in the future.
The film is a joy to watch; it’s entertaining and funny, inspiring and heartfelt. It is the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore, a descendant of Hollywood royalty who’s been on the silver screen since she was a little girl. With Whip It she proves she has more skills than that of an adequate actress. The look of the film is of an established director, and she truly has another career behind the camera. Perhaps that’s for the best.
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