I had high hopes for Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, as did, I’d guess, many other folks.  I had hoped she would bring her playful charisma to the lens.  And perhaps she does, in brief moments where whimsy is called for.  Unfortunately, the script here, penned by novelist-turned-screenwriter Shauna Cross based on her own novel, is weak.  Perhaps the material wasn’t conducive to smooth adaptation.  Or perhaps Cross should have given up her creative liberty and had an experienced screenwriter pen the adaptation instead of helming it herself.  Whatever the reason, the sum of this film’s parts can’t overcome the fact that it’s an aimless film desperately in need of plot.

Whip It is all about cool, real-world chicks who refuse to accept conventional notions of aging.  The concept is a fantastic one, and Barrymore has assembled a fantastic cast of beautiful and sexy women, including Kristin Wiig, Eve, Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, and Barrymore herself (in perhaps the funnest role, Smashley Simpson).  These women weave between roller derby action sequences and vignettes with ease, and there are charming moments of witty dialogue, but these elements don’t come together.  Thirty minutes in, the audience I was with was asking “Where the hell’s this going?  How can they possibly fill another hour?”  The answer, sadly, was revealed an hour later.  “Nowhere,” and “They can’t.”