Barrymore-directed ‘Whip It’ adorable, humorous

In this film publicity image released by Fox Searchlight, Drew Barrymore, left, Ellen Page and Kristen Wiig, right, are shown in a scene from, "Whip It." (AP Photo/Fox Searchlight Pictures, Darren Michaels) (Darren Michaels (HO))

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“Whip It”

3 stars

Rated PG-13 for language, drug material and sexual content including crude dialogue

Running time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Written by Shauna Cross

Directed by Drew Barrymore

Starring Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Daniel Stern

Drew Barrymore jams all the indie film adorability she can into her directing debut, “Whip It,” even though few would consider women’s roller derby an adorable sport.

“Whip It” is nonetheless an easy movie to like. Drawing upon several decades of Hollywood connections, Barrymore assembles a top-notch cast to play amiable outcasts. So the actors and characters are appealing, and much of screenwriter Shauna Cross’ dialogue is amusing. Keep smiling at all this and you may ignore the fact that the story’s center doesn’t hold a lick of sense.

“Whip It” stars Ellen Page, likely the most adorable and appealing young actress working today. She also has talent to match her winsomeness. Page plays 17-year-old Bliss Cavendar, who feels trapped. She feels trapped living in the tiny Texas town of Bodeen. She feels trapped by the endless string of beauty pageants that her mother (Marcia Gay Harden) insists she enter. Possibly she feels trapped because her parents named her Bliss, but Barrymore doesn’t explore that.

On a trip to Austin, Bliss discovers the roller derby. The sports’ atavism so excites her that Bliss vows to attend next week’s tryouts even though “the last time I wore skates they had Barbies on them.” She also is too young to legally join the league, but Bliss wouldn’t be the first teenager to claim she’s older than 21.

Improbably, Bliss aces the tryouts and becomes the newest skater for the Hurl Scouts, the worst team in the league. Like all the derby ladies, Bliss’ teammates have memorable stage names like Bloody Holly (New Zeland-born stuntwoman Zöe Bell), Smashley Simpson (Barrymore, in a small role) and Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig). Once on the track, Bliss becomes Babe Ruthless.

Screenwriter Cross is a former derby participant herself. Under the name Maggie Mayhem, she rolled with the L.A. Derby Dolls while pounding out unsold screenplays. All she had to do to become a produced screenwriter was to turn her sideline into a story line. She wrote “Whip It” as a book first (under the original title “Derby Girl”) then adapted her own novel into a screenplay.

Much of “Whip It’s” milieu is authentic. We see a scrabbled together sport held in an old warehouse. We see players who assemble their uniforms from second-hand stores. We see how roller derby becomes theater, particularly with makeup: “You can never have too much eyeliner.” For the uninitiated, Jimmy Fallon plays an announcer who explains the rules at every opportunity.

What is missing from Cross’ script – or at least the version that makes it to the screen – is a true sense of what drives a woman to strap on a pair of skates and roll around a track throwing and dodging punches and risking serious injury. This is a second, possibly third, job for most of them, and they make little money from it. We can guess that thrill seeking plays a part, but Cross’ script addresses this with a vagueness that doesn’t even qualify as superficial.

A more honest approach would be to feature a woman in her 20s or 30s trying to balance her derby desire with career and family commitments (in fact, that describes the 1975 Raquel Welch movie “Kansas City Bomber,” which I haven’t seen). Instead, Cross makes her heroine a teenager who has no right to participate in the sport.

Commercially this decision makes sense, but it cheapens the story and opens up a mess of plot holes. Why don’t Bliss’ parents notice her frequent absences, particularly when she has to travel to another town for the derby? And how is it possible that Bliss bruises only on easily concealable spots like her lower back?

Casting Page is another threat to the central logic. She actually appears younger than she did two years ago in “Juno.” How can her teammates and coach (Andrew Wilson) believe she is 22 when she looks 15? If “Whip It” weren’t filled with gullible people, it would end after 20 minutes.

Even though “Whip It” fails to create a crucial suspension of disbelief, it remains entertaining thanks to Page’s relationships with well-cast co-stars. Wiig, devastating in tiny roles in “Knocked Up” and “Ghost Town,” is funny and sweet as the teammate who becomes Bliss’ surrogate big sister. As Page’s understanding best friend, Pash, Alia Shawkat delivers tart dialogue reminiscent of Page’s in “Juno,” but not as relentlessly quirky. Wilson (brother of Owen and Luke) is wry and sympathetic as the Hurl Scouts’ frustrated coach.

Best of all is Daniel Stern as Page’s father. Stern slyly plays his character’s subtext, that as a father of daughters, he feels inadequate among the manly Texas men whose sons play football. Thanks to Barrymore, we get to enjoy a winning performance from this actor who hasn’t had much of a role since “City Slickers.”

The film’s ingratiating charm probably comes from Barrymore herself. She draws upon the quality that has kept her career going. Though “Whip It” is low budget and purports to celebrate the counter-culture, the story is mainstream at the core. Wipe off the grunge on the surface, and “Whip It” is closer to “Leave it to Beaver” than “The Bad News Bears.”