A coming of age story set in and around Austin, Texas, Whip It! tells of a young girl’s struggles to find her true place in the world. This is an unusual drama with comic moments that has Roller Derby as its central motif, and the lesson that being true to yourself is hard, but ultimately worth the trouble.
Drew Barrymore directed and also had a role in this offbeat but highly entertaining film. Ellen Page plays 17 year old Bliss Cavendar, an immature school girl who is more worried about taking risks, than exploring what life has to offer.
Her mother Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden) has enrolled Bliss in a debutante program, seeing it as a stepping stone to a better future. Bliss grudgingly follows her mother’s plan, until a chance encounter with some girls from the Austin Roller Derby catches her imagination and suggests that there might be something more interesting and fun that she should pursue.
In a past generation, we might have seen this story as a young man running away to join the circus, as the format is reminiscent of that fable. Telling her parents that she is taking a college prep course, and telling the Roller Derby people that she is 21, Bliss tries out and is accepted for a place on the worst Roller Derby team.
Bliss becomes “Babe Ruthless” and learns to do the daring and dangerous “whip” maneuver that helps to catapult her team into the derby finals. Of course along the way Bliss makes some mistakes, but in spite of the painful repercussions, she grows up, and learns to value herself and her opinions.
Ellen Page is an amazing young actress. She conveys the emotions of the timid Bliss, as she is fearful or unsure about everything in her life, and then before the viewer’s eyes blossoms into a self assured and motivated individual. Viewers can relate to her portrayal of the hard process of growing up and possibly disappointing the ambitions of one’s parents.
Bliss’s situation is not hopeless, or even horrible, as she has parents that love her, good friends and intelligence. She is simply restless and a different person from the debutante that her mother envisions. Roller Derby might be a far-fetched job opportunity, but it serves as a model for any of those choices young people make that don’t fit into their parents’ plans.
The Roller Derby crowd becomes a surrogate family for Bliss, one in which she can explore facets of her character, get over her timidity and truly become “Babe Ruthless.”
Whip It! is presented on single disc in widescreen format with English, French or Spanish audio and subtitles in English or Spanish. The special features are deleted scenes and trailers and sneak peeks.
In spite of the rough seeming situation, the derby girls with names like Maggie Mayhem, Iron Maven and Smashley Simpson, the humanity of the individual is the most important factor in the story, and so it becomes an oddly sweet adventure and ultimately a satisfying journey.
source: monstersandcritics.com
