Melissa Rauch Gets Down and Dirty as Fallen Star in ‘The Bronze’

Sandra Miska

“The Big Bang Theory” actress Melissa Rauch stars in “The Bronze,” a dark sports comedy that she co-wrote with her husband Winston Rauch. Rauch plays Hope Annabelle Gregory, a former gymnast who took home the bronze in the 2004 games (presumably the Olympics). The film opens with a flashback to 27 or so years ago at Hope’s mother’s funeral where Hope’s father Stan (Gary Cole) carries her as a baby wrapped in an American flag. For reasons that are never explained, Stan had Olympic dreams for his daughter from the start. Home videos of Hope practicing gymnastics as a child are shown followed by clips of her at the games in Rome in 2004 where she took home a bronze medal despite having an ankle injury (think Kerri Strug).

Despite this uplifting footage, any idea that the film that follows is going to be a typical inspirational sports flick is dispelled when adult Hope is shown watching the video of her big moment. Her time of being America’s sweetheart are long gone as Hope now lives in her father’s basement in Amherst, Ohio, and has hit rock bottom. She usually begins her day around noon before going throughout town scoring freebies from local businesses where employees still think of her as a hometown hero. Whatever she doesn’t get for free she pays for with money she steals from her dad’s mail truck.

Hope is in a state of extended adolescence partly due to the emotional trauma she sustained after her time in the spotlight. Her ankle injury along with issues with her coach and the onset of puberty led to the end of her competitive career. She is now a tragic figure who still wears her Team America warm-up suit everyday and binds her breasts, also known as her “dream killers.” Despite being a little girl in many ways, Hope still has a voracious sexual appetite and in one particularly sad scene in a local bar, she asks two men to buy her a drink in exchange for sex, assuring them they don’t have to worry about getting her pregnant because she hardly gets her period. They offer to buy her the drink but on the condition that she leaves them alone.

After years of enabling his daughter, Stan has reached the end of his rope. He pushes Hope to go into coaching, but she refuses claiming it’s beneath her. Everything changes following the suicide of Hope’s former coach. She receives a letter in the mail informing her that the dead woman has left her a cool half a million dollars but there’s a catch. In order to receive the inheritance, she must train Amherst’s newest Olympic hopeful, Maggie Townsend  (Haley Lu Richardson). Maggie, a bright-eyed 16-year-old being raised by an overworked single mother (Cecily Strong), is starstruck by Hope who is less than thrilled about the task ahead of her. In an effort to get her payout early, Hope attempts to sabotage Maggie, but her efforts backfire after an ex-lover, Lance Tucker (Sebastian Stan), a former gymnast-turned-coach himself, swoops in and threatens to take Maggie away from her. If Maggie goes forward with another coach instead of ending her campaign, Hope can kiss the money goodbye. Gymnastics is one of the few sports where women are more popular than men, and Lance has a chip on his shoulder when it comes to Hope because even though he won a gold medal at the same games where she won her bronze, Hope got more attention.

Once Hope makes the decision to train Maggie for real, she slowly begins to change not only because of the teenage girl but also due to her budding romance with Ben Lawfort (Thomas Middleditch) or “Twitchy,” the sweet-natured virgin with an unfortunate twitch who runs the local gym where she trains Maggie. The trio eventually head to the 2016 games in Toronto, Canada, where villainous Lance and the world’s media awaits.

“The Bronze” is an excellent character study on what happens when one peaks early in life and experiences fleeting fame.

More realistic than most sports films, “The Bronze” features a protagonist who grows a reasonable amount. The ending could’ve been better without a joke in the epilogue about teen pregnancy but otherwise it feels right. Be forewarned, the film goes above and beyond to earn its R rating with plenty of profanity, sex jokes and a sex scene similar to the infamous one in “Team America: World Police.” Those who are squeamish and/or easily offended would be best to sit this one out.

“The Bronze” opens nationwide March 18.