The Bronze

Hope Ann Gregory ("The Big Bang Theory"'s Melissa Rauch) is a frightful, despicable person. The opening scene, in which she is fingering herself whilst lying on her bed watching a video of her glory days winning a Bronze Olympic Medal as a gymnast, sets the tone for this vulgar and rather lame comedy.

Hope is a foul-mouthed, narcissistic, washed up athlete who treats her pathetic mailman father (an excellent Gary Cole) with disdain and robs him. She also robs the local shopkeepers of her hometown of Amherst, Ohio, who feel obliged to keeping spoiling her as if she were still a champion.

Hope Ann has reached rock bottom, but even she has not fallen quite as low as her poor ex gymnastics coach, who commits suicide. Hope has fallen out with her years ago, and is surprised to learn that the woman has left her a legacy of $500,000 on the strict condition that Hope take over the training of 16-year-old Maggie Townsend (Haley Lu Richardson), a gymnast who has the potential to win an Olympic medal.

Hope reluctantly agrees to take on the task, but she steers the youngster wrong since the last thing that she wants is for someone else to win a medal and displace her as the feted local hero. It's a plan that may have worked but for the visit to the gym of Lance Tucker (Sebastian Stan), the Olympic team scout who demands to train Maggie himself when he sees that she is suddenly losing her form. Lance, a gold medallist himself, is also the man who took Hope's virginity; neither of them has ever got over either of those achievements.

Hope has to change her ways to keep in with Maggie, as under the terms of the legacy she must train Maggie right up to the Olympic games or she will not get a penny. She has, however, done such an excellent job of convincing us of her inbuilt meanness that it seems too little too late to redeem her properly, or to save this movie. It does at least have one redeeming highlight: A most superb naked acrobatic sex scene with Hope and Lance, which is also the first time that anyone breaks into a sweat in this story. It truly deserves a gold medal.

Also in the mix is "Twitchy" (Thomas Middleditch), the geeky gym co-owner who has always carried a torch for Hope, even though she has treated him dismissively for years. He is there to give the rather inane "happy ever after ending," which is supposed to complete the transformation of Hope from complete bitch to saint.

The movie was, surprisingly, executive produced by the usually reliable Duplass Brothers from a script that Melissa Rauch wrote with her husband Winston. It seems quite remarkable that she didn't write herself a more dimensional role, one that showcased her talent for good comedy.