The Bronze (2015)

July 23, 1996. Atlanta, Georgia. The Women's Gymnastics Team Finals. The American women had never won team gold. They were, however, slightly ahead of the Russian team heading into the last rotation in the team competition. American gymnast Dominique Moceanu failed to stick the landing on either of her vault attempts. Then, her teammate Kerri Strug also fell – and injured her ankle. With the Russians performing in the floor exercise event at the same time, the competition between the two teams was so close that the American women's coach, Béla Károlyi, told Strug that they needed her to make her second vault to secure the gold medal. Strug limped to the start of her approach, then she sprinted down the mat, sprung over the vault and… stuck the landing! Strug then began hopping on her good leg as she saluted the judges before collapsing to the mat in pain. She had to be helped off the mat and later carried by Károlyi to the medal stand. U.S. Women's Gymnastics had their first team gold in Olympic history and Kerri Strug was a national hero. It's this story that inspired "The Bronze" (R, 1:48), but that's all that Strug's heroic act of self-sacrifice has in common with this embarrassment of a movie.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics, American gymnast Hope Annabelle Greggory (Melissa Rauch, from TV's "The Big Bang Theory") suffered an injury during the Women's Team Competition, but still managed to perform in her final event, helping the U.S. to a team bronze. She spent the next dozen years in her small hometown of Amherst, Ohio (30 miles west of Cleveland) living off her fifteen minutes of fame, in the home of her devoted widowed father (Gary Cole), depending on him for most of her support. She also gets free meals at the mall food court, has a reserved parking space in front of the town diner and she wears her USA warm-up suit everywhere. Hope's glory days – correction, glory day is an Olympic-sized cow and she is milk-ing-it! This might not be so bad if she were a decent person, but she's rude, foul-mouthed, promiscuous, dumb, self-centered and meanest to those who care about her the most.

Certain circumstances arise that convince Hope to train another rising Amherst gymnast by the name of Maggie Townsend (Haley Lu Richardson) and make sure she's prepared for the upcoming Olympics. This puts Hope back in contact with an awkward, but sweet local guy named Ben (Thomas Middleditch) who co-owns the gym where Hope is training Maggie – and back in conflict with an old enemy, former Olympic Men's Gymnastics Gold Medal Winner Lance Tucker (Sebastian Stan) who is now a fellow Olympic Women's Gymnastics coach. Besides clashing with Lance and being mean to Ben, Hope's jaded and selfish personality contrasts greatly with Maggie's innocent enthusiasm, but Maggie and her hard-working single mother (SNL's Cecily Strong) are grateful to have her services. Hope herself ends up having more at stake in this scenario than she ever imagined – including her own hometown hero status.

"The Bronze" is rarely funny and often ridiculous. In the hands of more talented comedic actresses, this might have been an entertaining movie, but as it stands, Hope's steady stream of profanities, unladylike antics and self-aggrandizing behavior just come across as comedy by pummeling. (Or maybe, given this movie's subject matter, comedy byÂ… pommeling.) The script, written by the film's star and her husband, Winston Rauch, is content to p

Fmovies: I have laugh from beginning to the end, and never feel boring during this movie. If more movies could be as good as this one it would be heaven. I don't understand why people can write bad reviews or give bad rating to this movie... It's maybe not a blockbuster, but if you want have fun watching a small funny movie with special people and special story, this movie is made for you!!! I hope this movie can have the success it deserves. And I really want to say a big thank you to every body have work on this movie, it makes people feel good to see this kind of comedy, which look like low budget but actually we can feel there is love and passion behind this movie, thanks to have pay attention to all the details and bring us this kind of fun in the life.

"I'm not a coach—I'm a star!" Hope (Melissa Rauch)

The Bronze is not a comedy—it's a dreary drama! A has-been bronze 2004 Olympic medalist, Hope, can't get over her misfortune of pulling an Achilles heel in that 2004 competition and thus aborting her future plans for gold. I suppose her bitter personality, verbally abusing everyone in her path, could qualify for dark comedy, but Billy Bob's Bad Santa she's not, certainly not Fargo or Shaun of the Dead.

When Hope is spitting invective on everyone, Hope has a Midwestern twang truly annoying and crying out for a coach. Beside that irritation, Ms. Rauch and her husband, Winston, have few if any lines worth the comic designation. Humorous in its own way is love interest Ben's (Thomas Middleditch) constant twitching, but even that endearing affliction gets old soon. Gary Cole playing her dad is a pro as a weak father trying to balance out his beloved daughter emotionally while she continues to abuse him verbally.

So you ask what's good besides Gary Cole? Well, Hope's transformation into a semi-civilized person comes as she's forced to coach sweet Olympic hopeful, Maggie (Haley Lu Richardson), a rival for the small-town Ohio's worship of Hope's Bronze achievement. Hope is much more likable as a coach than a former athlete, and some of those coach scenes are believable.

Also noteworthy is the production design, especially Hope's room filled with tacky trophies and teddy bears, attesting to this film's greatest achievement—a story of arrested development with little hope that Hope will be a model citizen. After all, it takes some moral fiber to disavow casual sex and mail theft for their cheap acquisition.

Her last scene, however, promises a transformation we get too little of during our time with her .

The Bronze fmovies. ...this is still a pretty bad film.

I hate to bash a low-budget indie flick like this, because it's obvious everyone in the cast is trying their best... It's just not funny.

I'm not a fan of 'Big Bang Theory' so I have no familiarity with the lead actress, but it's clear she was going for a Danny McBride-esque tone for the main character. Unfortunately, NOTHING about this character comes off as lovable, or even likable, so there's not a single moment in the film in which you root for her. This is a fundamental problem in storytelling that is forgivable in most "wacky" comedies (because, honestly, who *really* cares about character in that genre?) IF they managed to disguise the problem with hilarious set pieces. This movie didn't. The "raunchy" jokes felt awkward/out of place and most just fell completely flat.

It just wasn't funny.

I'm not surprised at all this didn't find an audience. I'm sure it'll perform better on DVD, but even then I can't recommend it.

I was not expecting much so I got a little more than I was bargaining for. It's not the best comedy that I've ever seen, but it's a pretty decent sports movie.

Very grounded in reality, The Bronze is about a gymnast still living off the moment she took the Bronze in the 2004 Olympics who is forced to train another gymnast from her hometown going for the gold.

Definitely amusing to watch Melissa Rauch (who I just realizes is one of the girls on The Big Bang Theory) as Hope, whose sad existence made for some laughable moments as she attempts to sabotage the promising career of Maggie, a bright eyed gold medal contender who worships the ground Hope walks on. I thought Haley Lu Richardson performance as Maggie was a definite highlight to a movie that did not have much going as far as real interesting characters.

It's not laugh out loud funny but it has some enjoyable moments. It does work as a sports movie with a more down to Earth summary of overcoming obstacles to be a winner and what happens when that moment is over.

Something to watch on the whim if you see on Netflix or something.

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.