Stick It
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- For other uses, see Stick It (disambiguation).
| Stick It | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Jessica Bendinger |
| Produced by | Gary Barber |
| Written by | Jessica Bendinger |
| Starring | Jeff Bridges Missy Peregrym Vanessa Lengies |
| Music by | Mike Simpson |
| Cinematography | Daryn Okada |
| Editing by | Troy Takaki |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 28, 2006 |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 Million |
| IMDb profile | |
Stick It is a teen comedy film starring Jeff Bridges, Missy Peregrym, and Vanessa Lengies. It was written and directed by Jessica Bendinger, the film marks her directorial debut. It was produced by Disney's Touchstone Pictures and was released in theatres on April 28, 2006.
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[edit] Plot
After another run-in with the law, rebellious 17-year-old Haley Graham (Peregrym), a retired gymnast, is given a choice between enrolling in Burt Vickerman's (Bridges) strict and demanding program for gymnastics (VGA) or a military institute. Haley's choice is to take the latter, but the judge decides to force her to enroll in the program against her wishes.
Haley was once considered one of the most talented gymnasts in the United States. She made it to the World Championships, but she walked out of competition in the middle of the finals, costing the American team the gold medal.
Disliking the sport's rigid rules and intense training schedule, Haley is reluctant to come out of retirement. Her attitude toward her fellow gymnasts—as well as her past—causes conflicts. After getting the cold shoulder the first day at the gym, Haley has a talk with Coach Vickerman, who convinces her to take up the sport once again—at least until she can enter an upcoming invitational competition. Vickerman convinces her that she can use the prize money from the competition to repay some property damage debts she still owes and leave gymnastics once and for all.
Haley begins to train at VGA, but she finds that difficult tricks mean nothing without control and execution. She reluctantly asks for Burt's help and begins to show passion for gymnastics once more.
At the invitational, Haley's talent shines and her return from gymnastics retirement seems for the better. But all is not what it seems in the scoring system. She starts to remember one of the many reasons she retired: the flaws in judging. The panels do not look at the difficulty of the move nor do they look at the technique; they merely take deductions for unimportant minor errors.
In addition, Haley is severely stressed by her domineering mother, who has arrived to watch the meet. Her conduct at the World Championship ("Worlds") has not been forgotten by the other athletes, and they treat her with open hostility. Haley finally breaks down in the middle of her balance beam routine and, in a repeat of the World Championships, leaves the arena before completing the competition. Before she leaves, she reveals to Vickerman one of the reasons she walked out of Worlds: she discovered that her mother was having an affair with her old coach.
Although she did not complete the invitational, Haley continues to train and, with three of her teammates Mina, Wei Wei and Joanne, qualifies for the National Championships. The biased judging leaves her far back in the all-around standings, but this does not keep her out of the event finals.
In the first event final, vault, Mina executes an extremely difficult maneuver but receives a low score. When Vickerman questions the judges, he learns that Mina was deducted on the technicality of showing a bra strap. Haley is next up, however, instead of vaulting, she shows her bra strap to the judges and forfeits her turn in disgust. The other gymnasts follow suit, earning a string of zeroes and forcing the judges to award Mina the vault gold medal anyway.
Haley's bold action sparks a movement. The gymnasts talk amongst themselves and realize that if they could choose the winner, the judging would be fair. They convince all the others in the competition to do the same, choosing one person from each event who they deem the best to be the "winner". The winner competes her routine; the others jump on and off the apparatus and earn scores of zero.
What started out as a gymnastics competition turns into a small revolution for the rules and Haley. Her talents are recognized once more and her future seems to be set with numerous colleges offering her athletic scholarships to compete in NCAA gymnastics.
[edit] Trivia
- Missy Peregrym's stunt double for the film was the French gymnast Isabelle Severino. Severino also had an on-camera cameo appearance in the film.
- Many members of the international gymnastics community had cameos in the film, including Allana Slater, Valeri Liukin, Carly Patterson, Mohini Bhardwaj, Stephanie Moorhouse, Yang Yun, Tania Gener, Bart Connor, and Elfi Schlegel. Nastia Liukin had a small speaking role as one of the "conspiring gymnasts" at Nationals and was the chosen "winner" of the bars final.
- The title, "Stick It," is a term used frequently in gymnastics. To "stick" a skill, one lands on one's feet cleanly and firmly, without any wobbles, steps or falls.
- Peregrym actually trained for her gymnastics. In an interview, she talks about practicing.
[edit] Movie Quotes
- Joanne's Mom:"Come on Josie."
Joanne:"I think I'm going to prom first." - Judge:"Her bra strap was showing."
Burt:"That is an old rule!"
Judge:"And so is her bra strap!" - Burt:"Are you going to hurt yourself?"
Hayley:"Probably."
Burt:"Don't get blood on the equipment!"
Hayley:"Too late" - (Hayley hands Joanne the phone)
Joanne:"I wanted a pink corsage! But white is fine." - Hayley:"Mina, tell Joanne I'm going to do a real dismount."
Mina:"Hayley says she's going to do a real dismount."
Joanne:"Put down the phone!"
[edit] External links
- Touchstone Pictures promotional website
- Stick It at the Internet Movie Database
- Stick It at Gery.pl - Film (pl)
