Stick It

A delinquent teenager (Missy Peregrym), who once gave up a promising career as a gymnast, enrolls in a gymnastics academy run by a discredited coach (Jeff Bridges), who might be the one to whip her into shape. Director Jessica Bendinger’s script strikes a symphony of false notes; her dialogue is arch and stilted and bristling with clunky would-be jokes (Dumb Girl: “You’ve got a GED? What does drunk driving have to do with school?”). The phoniness is everywhere: the story; the characters; the outlandish plot turn where the girls at a competition join up to teach the judges a lesson; and especially the gymnastics scenes, which have the telltale marks of faked editing and digital tampering. Bridges maintains his dignity as best he can, but Peregrym fails to convince, either as a teenager or as a gymnast.