It's tough to be original in Hollywood these days. Sure, you can occasionally find a unique idea or two, but if it's too new, producers won't want to back it. Instead, they'd prefer tried and true ideas that have proven themselves capable of making money. Whip It, the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore and starring Ellen Page, does not cover any new ground in the area of coming-of-age tales, except maybe the concept of roller derby as a means of belonging. Instead, it embraces the classics and reminds its audience of the ability to imbue oneself with initiative and pride and to fulfill anything one desires.

Bliss Cavendar (yes, that's her actual name) is a shy, self-consciously rebellious teenager growing up in a one-horse Texas town and, like most people her age, is looking for an escape. Her mother (Marcia Gay Harden, Mystic River) drags her through beauty pageants that she never wins, and her father (Daniel Stern, "Marv" in Home Alone) avoids his family in favor of watching professional football on TV. But one day, Bliss encounters three mysterious girls in roller skates; she promptly enters into a dream-like state, as if experiencing love at first sight. Things move pretty fast for her after that: she attends a roller derby event with her cynical best friend (Alia Shawkat, Arrested Development), she falls for both the brutal sport and a brutally cute musician (Landon Pigg, a first-time actor), she lies about her age and is told by her new idol (Kristen Wiig, "SNL") to audition, she becomes both her team's winning factor and the front page story for the sport. Telling her parents she signed up for an ACT class, she takes a Bingo bus down to Austin twice a week to continue her double life as 22-year-old "Babe Ruthless"; inevitably, her secret is revealed, and rifts open up between her and everyone close to her. However, this is a feel-good movie, and while a significant amount of time is devoted to her burgeoning romance, it's nothing without the climactic "big game".

Obviously, this is a film that reeks of clichés and stereotypes from past films in both the sports and coming-of-age genres, one of which is Breaking Away, Daniel Stern's film debut. While occasionally this shows itself through predictable events (the team miraculously recovers from a losing streak for a go at the championship, the trash-talking leader of a rival team (Juliette Lewis) is slow to accept Bliss, lots of montages, etc.), this is not an error in the filmmaking of Ms. Barrymore. It's not that the film falls into the familiar patterns of films like National Velvet and The Karate Kid and ultimately pales in resemblance to them; it's that it champions those classics and is proud to inspire people along the same lines.

An obvious factor in this accomplishment is the film's excellent cast and crew. Barrymore's greatest strength in her direction is that she appears to have a great deal of fun making the movie; there are several outtakes during the credits, and a general sense of warmth flows throughout the story. Page and Harden are also at the top of their game as the daughter and mother who will never understand each other, but will always attempt it. Page uses the same mold of her Juno character to gather the character's adventurousness and wonder, but without any of the biting remarks or dripping sarcasm. It was rather surprising to see her as an impressionable girl without any of the comebacks or self-confidence Juno had, as this character is still wondering she belongs. Harden likewise develops her character in interesting ways; while it would be easy to portray her character as a former beauty queen reliving her glory days through her offspring, instead she becomes a protective mother with a misguided attempt at empowerment using something she's familiar with, and wishes her kids to have more opportunities than she did (she works as a mail carrier). Wiig and Stern also have startlingly strong turns as the mentor and father of Bliss, encouraging her to find her way and when she finds something she loves, hold onto it with dear life. The rest of the cast drift toward the background, and I honestly wish there were a few less ensemble characters and more development of the rest. But they never seem cluttered or taking up space, and they all provide the support they are intended for.

Whip It is the story of a small-town girl growing up in the vicious and fun-loving world of roller derby. There's not much else to say about it, but that's all one really has to say. I give the film 3 1/2 pitchforks for Drew Barrymore and her cast recognizing what their film is, and loving every minute of it. If you're looking for a good time at the movies, there's no better place to find it.