Whip It

Director: Drew Barrymore
Cast: Ellen Page, Kristen Wiig, Marcia Gay Harden and Juliette Lewis
DVD release: 18 February 2010
Rated: M

Sisters whip it for themselves

Whip It is a pleasant entertainment package thanks to the talents of two popular women in Hollywood. Ellen Page - that young charmer from Juno - is back under the guidance of Drew Barrymore (once the little charmer in E.T.) now sitting for the first time in a director’s chair. Together they bring off the story of a backwoods girl who strives to find more adventure in life than working in a local café. No doubt it's a subject which will find empathy in the hearts of many teenagers.

Bliss Cavander (Ellen Page) dreams of escaping her small town blues in Bodeen, Texas. Her mother Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden) is nutty about beauty pageants convinced success only comes to winners of such contests. She drags awkward and unenthusiastic Bliss into competing, but with little success. Bliss sneaks off to the big smoke in Austin, and with best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat), discovers the rough tough world of the ‘all girl’ roller derby: ‘Hot chicks in fishnets on roller skates beating the crap out of each other.’ What more would you want in a sport?

Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig) encourages Bliss to try for a spot on the Hurl Scouts, a team of losers but with a lot of spunk. After many falls, finally Bliss emerges as an unlikely hero of the Scouts. She's 'Babe Ruthless' by night, yet serves hamburgers in Bodeen’s Oink Joint by day, her parents unaware she’s doing the derby thing.

Poor Bliss has to juggle her beauty-obsessed mother, boorish father Earl (Daniel Stern) and her aggressive skating rival, the vicious Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis). Enter rather gormless Oliver (Landon Pigg) from an indie rock band, who quickly develops a crush on Bliss. Everything fast-rolls to a nail biting conclusion as the underdog Hurl Scouts battle the High Rollers, an established winning team, for the championship.

The screenplay from Shauna Cross, after her autobiographical novel, verges dangerously on ‘small town girl makes good’ cliches. It's saved by the raucous roller derby, its spills and thrills embellished with a wild pie throwing sequence and some shenanigans by the derby’s MC ‘Hot Tub’ Johnny (Jimmy Fallon).

P-plate director Drew Barrymore lapses occasionally trying to hold all the treads of the various plotlines together. However her overall taut direction keeps the story moving along at a good pace with the power to have you barracking for Bliss and her team in the big final race. Barrymore plays up the sentimental bits, but never gets too mushy. She also fills a minor part as Smashley Simpson.

Ellen Page (Smart People) is again appealing in this spirited role, although not physically the most likely candidate for an extreme contact sport. She gains your sympathy from the first reel and never lets go. Another passionate performance from this impressive young star, she also shows her considerable athletic skill. Marcia Gay Harden (The Dead Girl) also puts in a good showing as the mother completely besotted by the beauty pageant circuit. She gives depth to what could be a very stereotyped character. Juliette Lewis (Starsky & Hutch) provides a suitably unscrupulous opponent. Also worthy of attention are Kristen Wiig, Rose Sparks, and Zoe Bell, all members of the Scouts team. Zoe Bell, previously a stunt woman, notably appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof.

The rules of the sport are made clear in the early part of the film so the audience can follow the game play, giving lucidity to the wild crash-prone derby sequences, which are well-handled by the camera crew. Music from punk rock to hip hop gives impetus to the action. Despite packing the story with predictable family conflicts, and some dithery sidetracking around a tacked-on romance without much spark, the central theme manages to sit firmly in place. Ellen Page’s inherent sweet charm overrides shortcomings to provide the movie with wide audience appeal. A roller skater sitting next to me certainly gave it the thumbs up.

John Bale