LOVE is Not Too Strong a Word

It started with Juno.  How could anyone NOT have fallen in love with Ellen Page in Juno?  Her character was smart, she was funny, she knew who she was.  Ellen Page hit the publicity circuit and she seemed to be all of those things as well.  I was in.

Now there is Whip It.  A roller derby movie.  That alone is enough for me.  Aggressive women in fishnets and lots of eyeliner on roller skates?!  Sign me up.  I'm totally in.  Then I find out that Ellen Page plays the lead role.  It's almost too much  to be true.  Toad and I saw the movie over the weekend and it was tons of fun.  It follows the familiar coming-of-age, breaking away from the parents and finding your own way script, but instead of the lead female becoming the star in a dance contest a la Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (LOVE that movie), this time the girl is rough and tumble and might just kick your ass.  She wears combat boots and isn't afraid of a bruise.  She's a very different kind of expression of what it means to be a powerful woman.  The whole thing just makes me happy and love is NOT too strong a word.