Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut “Whip It” attempts to capture the same humor and wit found in star Ellen Page’s smash success “Juno” but takes a few missteps which cause it to not quite reach its potential.

In a nutshell, “Whip It” ultimately concerns itself with Bliss Cavendar(Ellen Page) as she attempts to find herself and carve her own niche outside of the pageant-lifestyle her mother(Marcia Gay Harden) has thrust upon her. Living in a small Texas town and working in a local diner, life seems ordinary and quite mundane for the seemingly out of place young Cavendar. An Austin-based roller derby team proudly proclaiming themselves the Hurl Scouts pick up Bliss as their newest member though, and after taking the moniker of Babe Ruthless, she is greeted with a new world consisting of bruises and girl-bonding while on the roller rink.

Page is fine in the role, and while she still has the same pattern of dry wit and delivery found in 2007’s Juno, she is both likeable and entertaining to watch in every scene. The standouts from the film come in the performances of Harden’s Brooke Cavendar who struggles to give her daughter opportunity and identity and Kristen Wiig as Maggie Mayhem, Bliss’s teammate and voice of reason on occasion.

The film does have its share of laughs and the plot is an easily identifiable story of a teen not always fitting in or wanting to go the route their parents wish for them. What makes it difficult to recommend however are the choices made within the film’s content. Often I found adult language in places that were obviously unnecessary and more sexual innuendoes scattered throughout that make the film too edgy for a family to be able to view together.

I actually caught a screening of this with a couple of female roller-derby teams sitting behind me and if anything, this film was aimed for them as the target audience. They were cheering at the slightest mention of a brand-name roller skate and seemed to have quite a bit of insider-knowledge about the sport that made the film all the more enjoyable for them. For the average family though, “Whip It” is definitely one parents will want to use some discretion beforehand in making their decision on what to catch this weekend.

Grade: C