Highly enjoyable

Rating: 9/10 (7 April 2010)

Ellen Page is Bliss Cavendar, a 17 year old who spends much of her time reluctantly participating in beauty pageants for the vicarious enjoyment of her mother (Marcia Gay Harden). And then one day Bliss discovers roller derby, and everything changes.
For a small movie, Whip It touches on some fairly heavy issues - families, friendship, fulfilment, fidelity, and various other things beginning with F (and some which begin with other letters). But it touches on them deftly (and, sometimes, a little glibly), and always entertainingly. This is a very enjoyable script with many smiles in it.
Th roller derby sequences are well staged, if a little obviously protective of the tiny Miss Page. The film is well cast, with Kristen Wiig and Daniel Stern being particularly appealing.
But, again, Ellen Page claims the film, with a performance which is funny, perceptive, touching and sexy.