The Gabby Douglas Story

The movie deals lightly with the racism Douglas faced in a predominantly white sport, but mostly her road to gold is paved with after-school-movie maxims like "Don't look back, look forward."

It’s not a good fit [with Lifetime], and there’s not a lot of drama in this biopic about the first U.S. Olympic gymnast and African-­American to triumph in both the all-around and the team competition.

Though the movie is fine as a sweet, inspirational tale about determination through injury and many other stumbling blocks, nothing within it is as moving as the final montage, which is just actual footage from Douglas' incredible gold medal-winning London performance.

It doesn’t stir that many emotions. It doesn’t provide stunning insight into her character. It doesn’t even talk about setbacks (or her relationship with other Olympic gymnasts). Instead, The Gabby Douglas Story is a tribute to the power of positive thinking.

As you’d expect from this network, all the principal players have been burnished into one-dimensional characters: Gabby is driven but also fiercely devoted to her family, while her mom is noble and long-suffering and her siblings exist mostly to applaud their sister’s achievements. S. Epatha Merkerson, patron saint of TV movies, shows up as Gabby’s grandma, full of life-affirming bromides.

The Gabby Douglas Story is pretty much made of spit and bailing wire. And while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it renders the otherwise stirring story of this golden girl barely worthy of a bronze.

It’s 90 minutes of treacly declarations and follow-your-dreams platitudes that waste the talents of both Regina King and S. Epatha Merkerson.