Hot Take: The Bronze

Hot Take: One of the most vulgar, raunchy (and awkward) comedies of the last decade. Time will turn this box office bomb into a cult classic.

Let’s get this out of the way: The Bronze was not a good movie. However, it was funny. No, really. It was hilarious. Sometimes, I found myself laughing with it. Sometimes, I found myself laughing at it. Occasionally, the laughter happened and I wasn’t even sure why… or even if I felt good about myself laughing at what I was watching.

The Bronze features Melissa Rauch as Hope Ann Greggory, a former Olympic bronze medalist who is still trying to live off of her 15 minutes of fame from her miraculous bronze medal win at the 2004 Olympics. The film, written by Rauch and her husband Winston, is hard to describe. It’s very basic in it’s storytelling and follows the same pattern as many previous comedies but the script presents an odd twist in that it contains some of the most inappropriately off-the-wall exchanges from Rauch’s Hope and other characters she interacts with. You don’t know whether to laugh or cringe. Even while you’re laughing, you still feel like maybe you shouldn’t.

At some point, you expect the film to drop it’s crude façade and go a more predictable route. While the story does, the dialog never takes the same path until maybe the last 90 seconds of the movie and, even then, it’s hard to say it ever really loses it’s edge. Then there’s the music in the credits. Holy crap!

“Spoiler Free” Pros

• Melissa Rauch
  As Greggory, Rauch never breaks out of her vulgar, ridiculously inappropriate shell and that’s essentially a good thing because, even though you know you probably shouldn’t be, you’ll probably find yourself laughing at some of the ridiculous things said… even if it is one of those laughs that come from your head thinking, “Did she really just say that?” The Ohio accent also adds to the film’s quirkiness and Rauch stays true to the accent throughout.
• “Twitchy”
  One of the many funny supporting cast members, Thomas Middleditch plays Ben. Throughout the movie, Rauch’s Greggory refers to Ben as “Twitchy” which apparently was a childhood nickname he earned because of a facial tick that still hasn’t quite gone away.
• The Rap Song in the Credits
  “F— That!” won’t be nominated for Best Original Song at next year’s Academy Awards but it’s like the cherry on top of a sundae.

“Spoiler Free” Cons

• The Story
  It’s predictable. No one ever evaluates Tommy Boy on the merit of it’s rather silly and lazy plot, do they?
• It’s Not For Everyone… And Honestly, I Don’t Know Who to Say It Is For
  From the outside looking in, it’s hard to imagine the target audience. The showing I went to was empty as have been most showings across the U.S. this weekend as The Bronze is averaging around $350 per screen (at 4 showings per day over 3 days that’s roughly 3-4 tickets per showing). It’s certainly not targeted at fans of The Big Bang Theory (where Rauch is best known for) or someone at Sony erroneously thought fans of the show would go see it on Rauch’s presence alone.