America’s Sweetheart turns sour

What It’s About

Olympic gymnast Hope Ann Greggory is stuck in her past glory days in the raunchy black comedy “The Bronze.”

She remains a hometown hero in Amherst, Ohio, but her minor celebrity is in danger of fading as a new gymnastics prodigy is getting a lot of buzz. Spiraling downward, Hope has an opportunity to coach star-in-the-making Maggie, but can she redeem herself or will she sabotage the new kid?

Desperate and nasty, Hope is such an unlikable character that it is difficult to warm up to her as a human being. Your jaw will drop at her foul mouth and audacious behavior.

Performances

Melissa Rauch, Bernadette on “The Big Bang Theory,” has done a 180 and wrote this despicable character for herself. She and her husband Winston co-wrote the screenplay. Obviously, she is trying to broaden her range. But ewww yuck.

To her credit, Rauch goes all in, and developed an upper Midwestern nasal speech pattern, and does soften up at some point, but barely.

The movie features a strong supporting cast, making the material more palatable. Gary Cole (“Office Space”) has found his niche in comic characters, and hits the right notes as the doting dad trying to help his daughter change her ways.

Thomas Middleditch (“Silicon Valley”) earns our sympathy as hapless Ben, whom Hope called “Twitchy” in high school. He sees good in Hope despite her vulgarity.

Sebastian Stan (“The Martian”) suavely plays a gold medalist and cocky rival coach who is just slick enough to get under Hope’s skin, and smoothly executes a very athletic and graphic hotel sex scene — this movie is strictly adult material.

Newcomer Haley Lu Richardson projects innocence and skill as the young gymnast idolizing Hope. She is impressive in her first movie role. Cecily Strong (“Saturday Night Live”) shows range as her hard-working single mom.

What Works

The cast lifts the film up from the gutter, but the lead character is so off-putting that it takes tremendous endurance to see the story through to the finish line.

The Rauches are successful in depicting fame’s green monster, athletic competition, and life in a small town. Overall, the characters have some depth, with the actors infusing them with real heart.

Flashes of clever comedy emerge in situation — the dad’s pet fish, for example.

What Doesn’t Work

But they went all out to make it cringe-inducing. The film strives to balance the awful behavior with amusing and tender moments, but doesn’t entirely succeed. The wavering tone is problematic.

Similar to “Blades of Glory,” we see the inner workings of Olympic sports competition, and how celebrity manifests itself in contemporary America.

It’s a sad story about the excesses that can happen when you become “America’s Sweetheart,” no matter how many minutes that fame is. And it’s one we rarely see.

This story was originally published March 17, 2016 at 11:43 AM with the headline "America’s Sweetheart turns sour."