There are plenty of sports movies out there, but gymnastics feel as though they’re woefully underrepresented at times and unfortunately it’s not hard to see why since despite the impressive nature of the sport it’s not quite as impactful or quick as some might like, and while it is a team sport, it’s still not quite what people expect to see. But there’s no doubt that from the first day of training to the moment that an athlete gets on the mat to perform a routine, it’s a lot of work. Stick It is a movie that makes it clear, kind of, just how much work really goes into being a gymnast since while a lot of sports require a great deal of hard work and effort, gymnastics requires something else since in some instances it almost feels as though those that engage in this sport have to break themselves down continually to build themselves back up, stronger and more resilient. That’s not exactly the case of course, but trying to do a gymnastics workout is something that might intimidate a lot of athletes given that gymnasts develop just about every part of their body to absorb the kind of impact they take when performing in one event or another.
This movie does manage to show some of the pressure that gymnasts experience and to be honest there’s a lot of that when going to a meet or simply training since quite a few parents want their kids to be the best when it comes to the sport. Coaches can add to the pressure, and unfortunately, the athlete can add to it as well by wanting to do the best at all times. Haley Graham, played by Missy Peregrym, narrated part of the movie and made it apparent that the stress that gymnasts go through, physical and mental, is sometimes more than any one person should be asked to take. Haley’s experience came from the fact that at one point she was one of the most skilled gymnasts in the world, good enough to go to the World Championships with a team of similarly skilled young women. The unfortunate part is that due to problems in her personal life, Haley fell apart upon reaching Worlds, and her team had to pay for her mistakes.
After that, Haley became kind of a problem child since she enjoyed the adrenaline rush of pulling dangerous stunts and running from the cops. But upon being caught at the beginning of the movie she was given a choice of serving her time in a correctional facility or going back to gymnastics. For Haley, a correctional facility actually sounded better, but the promise of freedom was far better with gymnastics, so she returned to the world she left and was put under the care of Coach Burt Vickerman, played by Jeff Bridges. The two characters were kind of made for one another since Haley had to learn how to control herself, while Burt, despite having a stellar reputation, was kind of a burnout as a coach, and had taken to telling any parent that brought their child in that they could in fact make the championship level. The problem with telling so many people this is that they start to believe it, and get upset when it doesn’t happen.
Another point that this movie drives home is that with gymnastics, the dedication and devotion to the sport doesn’t take up your whole life, but it takes up a lot of it and trying to balance one’s education, gym time, and any possible free time is bound to be insanely difficult. But one thing that was great, that one probably wouldn’t see that often in real life, is the defiance that the gymnasts showed at the final meet when after a perfect performance by one of their teammates, Haley and the others decided they’d had enough of the foolish and arbitrary rules and took matters into their own hands, as they decided who was best within each event. After making the decision each athlete would scratch, in other words, refuse to compete, while the best among them would take the prize as they were the only ones left to perform. This was innovative to be certain, but it was also something that likely would not happen at a meet since it’s very possible that things would escalate to a level that the athletes weren’t ready to face.
To be sure though, this was a fun movie to watch since it was the type of movie that left the audience feeling good about what they’d seen at the end, even if there were a few moments when people might have felt that the movie stretched the truth a little too much. But all in all, it would be an interesting movie to see get the reboot treatment.
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