Director Bryan Buckley
Genre Comedy | Drama
Cast Melissa Rauch, Gary Cole, Haley Lu Richardson, Thomas Middleditch
Rating R
Release Date March 18th, 2016
“A foul-mouthed former gymnastics bronze medalist with local celebrity status reluctantly trains a rising Olympics aspirant.”
The Bronze is written by Big Bang Theory star Melissa Rauch (Howard’s main squeeze Bernadette) along with her husband Winston (some guy who directed a short film oddly titled The Condom Killer). The film is directed by Massachusetts' native Brian Buckley who has mostly short films on his resume prior to The Bronze, which earned him a nomination for the Grand Jury prize in the drama category at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Bronze stars Melissa Rauch (obviously) along with Gary Cole (The Office, Pineapple Express) and Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley).
Well ladies and gentleman it’s like I always say, sometimes in life low expectations are actually a blessing in disguise. Actually it is more along the lines of set the bar low and you are bound to impress, yeah that’s the one. For my recent trip to the theater to see the little known film The Bronze, that sentiment couldn’t have rang more true. I was impressed. It was a rare breed of raunchy comedy with some heart. The first half an hour or so was slow and the humor was overly dry at times, but once it found that extra gear it was an enjoyable film. I expected to have some laughs but I didn’t expect an engaging story that kept me guessing right until the very end. The Bronze is unpredictable when it matters most and that allowed for a certain uniqueness generally found in independent films such as this
Let’s face it, Big Bang Theory actress Melissa Rauch has a mousy voice and a mousy face to go along with it. But who really cares, that's just part of who she is and I still think she's cute. It was refreshing to see her play America’s foul-mouthed spoon fed Olympic sweetheart with plenty of attitude and confidence. Her character lacked depth early on but once we were able to peel away the layers she transformed into a unique individual battling some inner demons. Thomas Middleditch did well and basically played the same character as he does in HBO’s Silicon Valley (just less successful and believe it or not a bit more confident). I really enjoyed Gary Cole as Hope’s father and I felt like they had fantastic chemistry together. I just wish the writing would have allowed for a Bill Lumbergh Office Space quote at some point, I would have settled for after the credits even. Seems like an opportunity missed.
As far as bottom line entertainment value, The Bronze delivers. I was expecting a raunchy low-budget comedy that more or less went through the motions but it was so much more than that. The Bronze is a little slow when the gun fires but reaches the finish-line with plenty of laughs and a smart enough script that actually manages to tap into some genuine emotion. I did not see that coming. The Bronze isn’t quite a gold or silver medal winner but the triple back flip-somersault-cartwheel landing (I absolutely just made that up) isn’t half bad.
