Sebastian Stan and Melissa Rauch in The Bronze (Alicia Gbur/Sony Pictures Classics)

February 2016: Donald Trump, with a hideous leer, calls an opponent a “pussy.” Cam Newton stalks out of his press conference in a rage after losing the Super Bowl. A few days later, it comes to light that the winner of the Super Bowl, Peyton Manning, once allegedly shoved his balls and rectum in the face of a female doctor looking at his injured foot. Nice guys, huh? Meet a gal who fits right in: Hope Ann Greggory, heroine of The Bronze.

Hope (Melissa Rauch), a bitter gymnast who once won an Olympic bronze medal for the U.S. team, is now wasting her life away in the sticks. From its first frame, The Bronze feels like a joyless grind. Watch Hope wank to her old TV tapes. Watch Hope wear her old tracksuit from 2004 nonstop. Watch Hope steal, lie, and offer herself up for a gangbang for the price of a drink (the boys turn her down). Watch Hope swear without moving her lips. Watch Hope rise to a challenge and become a better person. You won’t believe or connect with any of it.

With a little imagination, a hard case like Hope could have been scathingly funny or at least challenging. Perhaps director Bryan Buckley wanted to create a rougher, harsher Amy Schumer; deadpan scenes hint at attempts to mimic Napoleon Dynamite’s po-faced charm. Well, nothing works. Hope is just too mean and dumb, even for filmgoers with a high tolerance for unlikable central characters.

Parts of the movie occasionally rise above the vulgar and repetitive. Foxy Sebastian Stan deploys some smarmy charm as an old rival and Hope’s onetime seducer. Their gymnastic sex scene has a playful zing, but it’s not enough to rescue an inert mess.