I admit that I have a special affection for women comedy writers especially when they nail it.  In what is  still a male dominated industry, a great female writer can seem like a rare commodity, but there are more than you realize.  Tina Fey seems has set the standard for the last 15 years since being the first female head writer of Saturday Night Live and rightfully so.  But there is another woman writer that I have  come to love over the last few years…Melissa Rauch.  Yes, we all know here as the lovable Bernadette on The Big Bang Theory with her sweet high pitched voice and wholesome good looks, but she may not be as well known for her writing, although she should.  Go find online, a copy of her one woman show about Jena Bush.

Melissa Rauch has now written her first major feature film, The Bronze, about a former gymnastics star who became America’s sweetheart after winning a Bronze medal when she landed her routine on a sprained ankle. Yes, loosely based on Kerri Scruggs, but the character has been reduced to a foulmouthed has been, taking advantage of her former celebrity status every chance she gets.  It’s the perfect satire about Olympian sweethearts that we think are too darling to screw up and then we get shocked when they fall off the pedestal we put them on like Michael Phelps smoking pot.

First, I won’t tell you that this movie is the greatest of comedies and works on all levels.  Not Everything can be The Blues Brothers or Trading Places or even Animal House.   But the film is great because of what it is spoofing! Can you picture a former Olympian who was once on a Wheaties box turning out to be Walter Sobchak from the Big Lebowski …no, and that’s why it’s funny when you have a movie about that very thing. Therein lies the genius of the writing and that’s why I applaud Melissa Rauch.  The humor may be potty like or something from the American pie movies, but that’s okay. As nerds, we still laugh at stuff like that …if we didn’t then we wouldn’t like Kevin Smith, now would we!

The plot isn’t overly complicated and you can pretty much figure out what happens, but it’s the journey along the way that makes it fun.  While I won’t give the plot away, the best parts of the movie are Melissa Rauch’s character training the younger Olympian much like Walter Mathieu in the Bad News Bears and then one of the greatest sex scenes ever. Just ask yourself, how do gymnasts have sex…they are very flexible.  And the move gets an added bonus with Gary Cole From Office Space  playing his character as if Bill Lumberg became a postman.  It’s nice to see Melissa Rauch play the complete opposite of her character on The Big Bang Theory . She kept me laughing until the end .

I won’t say that this movie is worth a $15 ticket on a Friday Night, but certainly worth a Matinee and definitely worth renting . Melissa Rauch does a great job with her acting,  but her best comes in the form of the writing.  That’s what makes this movie great and I for one hope to see more from her in the future especially the stuff she writes.