In 2004, Hope Ann Greggory (Melissa Rauch) made her small Ohio town proud by bringing home the coveted Olympic Bronze Medal in women’s gymnastics. With her career cut short by a minor injury, Hope has been costing on that accomplishment ever since.
Rauch, who co-wrote this script with her husband, is best known for a show that I don’t watch. She insists though that Hope is a huge departure from her Big Bang Theory character and I’m willing to take her word for it. Unless CBS is willing to let her masturbate to footage of her glory days or say things like “absence makes the dick grow harder”, Chuck Lorre fans may be in for a side of the third most famous female BBT actress that they made not be ready for.
Hope is an obnoxious mess. Living with, mooching off of, and verbally abusing her sweet mailman dad (very well-played by Gary Cole), she makes a living off of stealing cash from his route. She also has a habit of going on a spoiled brat tirade of obscenities every time she hears something she doesn’t like, giving the sentenced-to-network-television actress a chance to do her best Melissa McCarthy (but somehow sounding a lot like Reese Witherspoon in Election).
Hope gets a second chance at life when her former coach dies and, for implausibly selfish reasons, she decides to take over coaching a promising sixteen year-old (Haley Lu Richardson) with dreams of Olympic gold. Richardson plays Maggie as naïve, hard-working, and loveable and Hope comes very close to ruining her. When Maggie beings to make the mistake of believing her own hype, The Bronze judges her way too harshly for the same attitude that it is so ready to forgive the 30 year-old Hope for.
The supporting cast of characters that Hope treats like shit- her dad, her pupil, and her sweet love interest (Tom Middleditch)- are all easy to like and make the film itself much more enjoyable to watch. The real problem is Rauch. As much fun as it must have been for her to unleash her inner Apatow, she’s more annoying than charmingly outspoken and her eventual redemption is too little-too late. And the ending, without giving too much away, is unforgiveable.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Ouch. Sounds like something I should skip.
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I would, yeah. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t laugh out loud a few times but I also did my share of cringing.
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This sounds like the worst kind of movie.
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Well, there’s nothing worse than a bad comedy so, in that sense, yeah.
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Now I’m almost curious enough to go see this. I have never heart of it.
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It completely snuck up on me too!
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Never been a huge fan of BBT but it still sucks this movie didn’t turn out to be worth much
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I watched a little at first but it’s not really for me. Just too sitcommy. Because Rauch only joined the cast after a few seasons, I wasn’t really familiar with her work. I didn’t enjoy her at all in this movie though.
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At first glance I thought this was based on a true story and, based on some of the meltdowns we’ve seen in professional sports, it could be. I know inspirational stories can be tiresome but going in the complete opposite direction isn’t necessarily good either.
And with one major exception I always seem to get sucked into watching at least a few seasons of Chuck Lorre sitcoms. They start with characters who strike me as so unusual and appealing I want to see where they go. And then they turn out to be the same cardboard cutouts as other sitcoms, just painted with glitter.
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I would have enjoyed this movie a lot more if it stayed with her being obnoxious and rude. When it tries to shoehorn in a love subplot. I lost interest.
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