Collider
Instead, this mediocre concept is a 115-minute production that can’t get enough of its simplistic protagonist and her tired personality. If I wanted to see a long movie about a jerk, has-been, champion-turned-coach teaching a sweet, naïve prodigy, I’d watch Kingpin. But here at Sundance, where quirk can reign supreme, The Bronze is content to parade its bratty princess around a sad, little kingdom, and expects us to laugh at every insult that comes out of her childlike voice.
AVClub: The Bronze follows a clear template: It’s an inappropriate-mentor comedy, pairing a foulmouthed adult with an innocent younger person, just like Bad Santa, Bad Words, and plenty of others before it. Given those easy comparisons, it takes a surprising amount of time to adjust to the film’s shticky conception of its main character, Hope Ann Greggory (Melissa Rauch). Hope is a former gymnast and one-time America’s sweetheart known for persevering through an injury and winning a bronze medal at what the movie is clearly legally prohibited from calling the Olympics. But following her emotional triumph, Hope was unable to fully recover to compete again—and gymnastics, being a young and tiny person’s game, passed her by. The movie rejoins her as an adult, still living with her father in her hometown of Amherst, Ohio, and exploiting her local-celebrity status by demanding free food from the Sbarro at the mall.
From Cinelinx:
When a former Olympic star (who can only cling to the past) is forced into training her "replacement", she suddenly has to cope with all the things she's kept buried and maybe find a new way to happiness. The Bronze tries to be more than a raunchy comedy, but comes up a little short.
Joblo
Melissa Rauch is absolutely delightful. The actress known for her work on the series The Big Bang Theory has given audiences a brand new anti-hero. THE BRONZE tells the story of foul-mouthed former gymnast Hope Annabelle Greggory. While she once became a local hero earning the bronze medal at the Olympics after a very serious injury, it all went downhill from there. Unfortunately for Hope, she holds on desperately to her former success which has made her bitter and angry. Things get even more upsetting when she is forced to train a young girl who may easily take away what little celebrity Hope had left.
