Movie Review: Raising the Bar

The new movie Raising the Bar, available on digital HD/VOD as of May 1 from Mar Vista Entertainment, focuses on 16-year-old Kelly Johnson (Kelli Berglund, one of the stars of the Disney XD series Lab Rats), a champion gymnast in Atlanta, Georgia, who moves from the United States to Australia with her surgeon mother Sarah (Peta Shannon) in the hopes of getting a break from her high-pressure gymnastic-filled life and, specifically, after a very disappointment performance at her last competition. Soon enough, though, Kelly is pulled back into the world of gymnastics when she learns her new school has a gymnastics club team.

We’ve all seen movies like Raising the Bar before, the down-trodden girl, who loses her best friends because of a devastating event only to learn they really weren’t her best friends. She eventually picks herself up, though, making new friends, learning a valuable lesson (or two) and vindicating herself in the process.

As the movie opens, we see a talented gymnast at what appears to be a very big and important competition. She is performing very well – with her coach and teammates very excited for her – until (you guessed it) she takes a big fall, ruining her chance and her team’s chance at winning.

Not that long afterwards, that talented gymnast and her mother head off to Australia where her mom will be working as a surgeon for the local hospital and Kelly will be attending a new school as well as taking a much needed break from the rigors of her sport.

Despite a rough first day at her new school (by wearing the wrong uniform) and getting off to a rocky start with Jess (Tess Fowler), the perennial mean girl at school, Kelly does make a friend in Nicola aka Nic (Lili Karamalikis) and she meets the “hot boy on campus” Scotty (Jack Tomich).

Things continue to look up when she and friend Nic start working together to improve Nic’s gymnastic skills – it helps that Kelly is obviously a top gymnast herself but also that her dad is a gymnastic coach. When her mom learns the truth, however, she is a bit concerned because Kelly is supposed to be taking the year off.

As you can imagine, Kelly earns her way onto the club team (with Nic right there with her); and faces off with her former teammates (who have been less than friendly toward her online) at the National Championships held in Melbourne. I won’t spoil how the movie turns out but if you are looking for a family-friendly movie that teaches its fair share of life lessons to its characters and viewers alike, then Raising the Bar is the right choice.

Mar Vista Entertainment is an independent entertainment studio with a mission to produce, acquire, and distribute premium film and television programming worldwide. The company was founded in 2003 as a global television distributor, quickly expanding into original feature film and television production while building a library showcasing more than 2,500 hours of content. You can learn more about Mar Vista Entertainment here.

Nic and Kelly at School

Nic and Kelly at Practice

Competition