Movie Review: The Bronze (2015)

Synopsis: After an injury ended her gymnastics career early, former bronze medalist Hope Ann Greggory has been exploiting her local celebrity status while living with her dad and stealing money from the back of his mail truck. When her former coach kills herself, Hope receives a letter bequeathing her $500,000. However, to receive the money, she must train an up-and-coming local gymnast for the Olympics.

Who's in it? The movie stars Melissa Rauch, Gary Cole, Haley Lu Richardson, Cecily Strong and Thomas Middleditch.


Review: This movie was mentioned in a book I recently read about the television show The Big Bang Theory. I am familiar with Melissa Rauch and the trailer made it seem funny, so I checked it out from our local library earlier today. My wife and I watched it tonight and, while it wasn't as funny as I thought it would be, I didn't hate it.

I think the movie might be wrongly classified as a comedy. If anything, it seemed a lot more like a drama about a former athlete struggling to take the next step in her life. Some elements were played up for comedic effect, especially some of the over-the-top language, but while Hope (Rauch) wasn't always the most likable person, it was easy to see why she was having problems moving forward. 

The fact she was being asked to train Maggie (Richardson), who was more talented and likely to make Hope an afterthought, only added to that drama. The money wasn't contingent on Maggie winning, and there really was nothing stopping Hope from sabotaging her protégé. 

The movie also proved to be a lot less predictable than expected. The truth about her former coach and the letter she received was a game changer that could have gone a couple different ways, as could have Hope's romantic relationship with gym owner Ben (Middleditch), especially after she practically threw that relationship away.

Probably the only thing I didn't like about this movie was the ridiculous acrobatic sex scene near the end of the film. I think the writers were trying to be funny, but I don't think the graphic scene contributed anything to the overall plot and, if anything, it made me think less of what had been, up until that point, a reasonably believable film.

Final Opinion: The sex scene was interesting but not needed. Other than that, this movie ended up being better than expected, even if it wasn't funny enough for me to consider it a comedy.

My Grade: B-

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