The Bronze

Starring: Melissa Rauch, Gary Cole, Thomas Middleditch, Sebastian Stan, Cecily Strong, Haley Lu Richardson
Directed by: Bryan Buckley
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A former Bronze-medal gymnast (Melissa Rauch) struggles to adjust to life after retirement and reluctantly agrees to coach a promising young star (Haley Lu Richardson).

Review:

Tim: I read somewhere about how funny The Bronze was, so I decided to check it out. I'm mad I can't recall where I read that, because I strongly disagree with that assessment. Sure, there's a few funny moments in the film, but as a whole, this is another lackluster comedy. It's an interesting film because Melissa Rauch is branching out from her role on "The Big Bang Theory" (which I've seen, but I don't watch). She writes and stars in this film about a foul-mouthed former gymnast. While she shows some flashes of impressive talent, as a whole, this felt more like an ambitious but failed attempt.

Part of the problem is our protagonist, Hope. She's obviously unlikable and continually displays behavior intended to make us not like her. This can work, as long as there's a hook to get us emotionally invested. Yes, I may despise this character's actions, but man, I can't help but liking them despite all evidence to the contrary. Many other films have pulled this off successfully. That doesn't happen here. We aren't given enough of a reason to care about this spoiled, snotty, naive, unintelligent, has-been, selfish, narcissistic, terrible human being. She really doesn't have any redeeming qualities. There's no reason for us to get invested in her. Yes, she might be funny and vulgar, but there's no emotional hook. As a result, I didn't care in the least about her or anything that happened on screen. Ladies and gentlemen, there's the central issue of the film.

The cast was fine. Melissa Rauch was definitely playing against type as our vulgar lead. I appreciate her committing fully to the role, but I didn't love her performance. There was no accessibility into the character. I left this film feeling unimpressed with her, outside of a few strong moments. Gary Cole did a decent job as her long-suffering father. He had a few moments to shine, which was nice. I like Thomas Middleditch, but he was saddled with an uninteresting character. His tics didn't seem believable or necessary. Sebastian Stan was fun to watch in an unlikable role. He embraced the dark side of his character and had fun with it. His character was too one-note for me, but his performance as a whole worked. Haley Lu Richardson was good as Hope's protege. There were moments where her inexperience as an actress showed, but for the most part, she did well.

I went into this really hoping to like the movie. It's not like we get very many gymnastics movies, and an R-rated gymnastics comedy is even rarer. It would have been wonderful had this been a hilarious, entertaining movie. Unfortunately, it's another lackluster comedy- a film that manages a few laughs, but isn't able to string together enough truly funny comedy to fill its run time. There were too many missed opportunities, too many jokes that fell flat. The characters were too unlikable to overcome their negative tendencies. The Bronze was an ambitious effort and I appreciate that. Unfortunately, the end result just didn't meet expectations.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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