STICK IT

US, 2006, 104 minutes, Colour.
Jeff Bridges, Missy Peregrym, Vanessa Lengies, Nikki Soohoo, Gia Carides, Jon Gries, Polly Holliday, Lee Garlington.
Directed by Jessica Bendinger.

Not the most elegant or attractive title for a film aimed at teenage girls and their parents, especially since it is about the world of gymnastics and sports finesse. The production notes indicate that, besides the aggressive meaning, ‘stick it’ means that the athletes land on the mat and are able to keep their feet there. And, as explained and seen in the film the girls also put something adhesive on their costumes to keep them from sliding up. Which is probably more information that anyone really needs!

Missy Peregrym, looking like Hilary Swank when she starred in The New Karate Kid, is a sulky and angry tearaway who walked out on a gymnastic competition some years before. After some reckless bike stunts and property damage, she is given the option by the judge to go to an institution or enrol in a gymnasts’ training centre. The centre is run by Jeff Bridges, who says in the production notes that he has three daughters and therefore was able to do this role - but who does not look completely happy.

There are the usual suspects: the snooty girl who is really driven by her mother, the nice and talented girls, slacker boyfriends, rival teams… And you know that it is all going to end well, except that there is something of a plot twist in the last part of the film where the gymnasts rebel against the strict letter-of-the-law criteria for points.

1. A film about athletics? Gymnastics? Motivation? Opportunity for youngsters?

2. The intended audience? A girls’ audience? The boys’ audience? A film for adults?

3. The background of the Olympics? Competition? American sport? The Texas settings? Haley and her background, family, with her friends, the BMX stunts? The courts? The gymnastic academy? The arenas for competition? The quarters for the students? How real? Musical score? Popular songs?

4. The title, the ambiguity of the title? The meaning of to shove it? The technical meaning of doing a perfect landing?

5. The story of Haley, her age, experience, the gradual revelation of the past, her mother and the quarrels, her pulling out of the championship, causing the team to lose? Her riding around on the bikes? Her friends? The breaking of the windows, the arrest? In Juvenile Court? The attitude of the judge? Her options, going to Houston to the academy? Her meeting with Burt Vickerman? His reaction to Haley, her sullen stances, anti-authoritarian behaviour? The background of the competition two years earlier, her costing the team the gold medal?

6. Haley at the gym, her attitudes, trying to undermine Burt? Her relationship with her mother? Her performance? Her clashes with Joanne? Her training by herself? The gradual changing of her attitude? Her gradually joining the team? Her skills? The competition, her being attacked by the former team-mate, Tricia? The revelation that her father was paying the bills for Vickerman to train her? Frank and Poot and their visits, befriending Joanne? The revelation of the truth about her dropping out of the competition, the coach and the affair with her mother?

7. The character of Vickerman, old and crusty, his skill in training gymnasts? His relationship to the girls? Authority, demands on them? His letter to the judge, praising Haley? His giving back the money? Paying her debt? The peaceful agreement? Haley coming back?

8. Joanne, her snobbery, self-confidence? Her mother and her push? Ultimately defying her mother? Her friendship with the boys? Having life as a teenager?

9. The other members of the team? Wei Wei, Mina? The ups and downs of friendship? The training? Attitudes towards Burt?

10. The build-up to the final competition, the gymnasts and their performance, the judges and their attitude towards Vickerman? The performance and the judges marking the girls down? The reaction of the audience? Haley and her decision not to perform properly? Persuading the other girls to do the same? Even Tricia? Their defiance of the judges? The judges and their behaviour?

11. The ultimate success? Haley and Tricia? Winning the gold?

12. The background of families, their pressures, especially mothers? Broken families, affairs? The effect on the teenagers? Burt and his being a role model – even if crusty?

13. The film in the line of the tradition of sport films, gymnastics, and motivational sports films?