Stick It

You know it. You’ve seen it. It’s the “rebel gets community service as penance for her crimes” plot. The punishment? She has to serve her time in the Vickerman Gymnastics Academy. However, while Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym) is rather analogous to Emilio Estevez’ character in “The Mighty Ducks” (from Disney, which is part of Buena Vista Pictures, the distributor of this movie), the film attempts, and fails, to move in directions dramatically that are just beyond the reach of the director, Jessica Bendinger, who wrote the nearly identical “Bring It On.”

The film opens with MTV-ish cinematography and editing as several youths are skating and biking through an ad hoc obstacle course of homes under construction. One of the youths is revealed to be a girl, Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym). When one of them crashes through a bay window and the alarm goes off (odd that it’s armed in the first place, being an unfinished house), the three make a break for it as police sirens respond almost instantaneously.

Enter the Community Service Plot. Haley has two choices… juvenile detention center, or VGA—Vickerman Gymnastics Academy. In a near-rehash of a storyline so reliably beaten to death by films such as “The Mighty Ducks,” the former gymnast—who, of course, walked off a shot at the gold—must mentor a group of potentials in preparation for the nationals.

Because of her stunt, she’s hated by several individuals including a former Team USA member and some of the hopefuls for this year. Her biggest thorn is Joanne (Vanessa Lengies), the mandatory stuck-up bimbo of the bunch. There’s also the two gorpy pals, Wei Wei (Nikki SooHoo) and Mina (Maddy Curley), who end up the “first converts” as everyone gradually gets behind Haley.

Then of course is the dynamic between Haley and Burt Vickerman, whose career-ending injury forced him, strangely, into that kind of coach that every stalwart sports “comeback from nowhere” story must have: He doesn’t believe in taking risks. It’s baffling how often this happens, even though it’s certain that most gymnasts do reach a point in their career where risks either cause injury or are mitigated by age, yet most coaches still push their top candidates to go beyond their limits. That’s the known nature of the sport, so why does every movie have to have a coach that completely turns away from the principles that made their athletic career?

The gymnastic stunts are impressive, regardless of whether the actors or stunt people did them, as are the montages that utilize carefully orchestrated composites in digitally-created choreography in the style of Busby Berkeley. There’s also a mildly-charming dynamic between the tomboyish Haley and her two pals. The young boys, who are as much “devotees” to her philosophy of rebellion as they are friends, stage a mediocre attempt to break her out of her de-facto incarceration.

Let’s also throw in an unnecessary side plot involving her former instructor, Chris DeFrank, and her recently divorced mother. But this is merely window dressing to give her character some semblance of background. Will Haley make the cut to go to nationals? Surely. What happens then, however, is probably a bit less predictable. Figuring perhaps that she’d exhausted already-borrowed clichés with “Bring It On,” writer/director Jessica Bendinger tries to make this film less about winning than about team spirit. Without spoiling the outcome for those who don’t see it coming a mile away, the team mates confront the will of the judges with a strategy that, more or less, puts them in control of the results.

I found it odd that so many parents had brought their preteen daughters to see the film. The level of innuendo and some situations seem more like teenage material but I leave that for parents to figure out on an individual basis. “Stick It” is nothing you haven’t seen before, only the rivalries and hurdles are in gymanstics as opposed to hockey (“The Mighty Ducks”), skating (“The Cutting Edge”), baseball (“Major League”) or cheerleading (the aforementioned “Bring It On”), pageantry (“Drop Dead Gorgeous”), well… you get the idea.

Stick It • Dolby® Digital surround sound in select theatres • Running Time: 105 minutes • MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some crude remarks.• Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures