Drew Barrymore makes an impressive, high-flying debut as a director in Whip It, a highly original coming-of-age comedy set in the world of women’s roller derby.

Fast-paced, funny and definitely offbeat, it’s a movie of irresistible charms in which, as one character describes it, there are “hot girls in fishnets beating the crap out of each other.”

Well, yes, there certainly is that side of Whip It. Women in helmets and skimpy costumes, sporting tattoos and racing around a banked wooden track to the cheers and jeers of a nighttime crowd in a converted old warehouse in Austin, Texas

But at its roller-rink heart is the sweet story of a teenage girl who is trying to get out from under the thumb of her controlling mother and live her life, well, a little dangerously.

Bliss Cavendar is endearingly played by the effervescent Ellen Page, the Academy Award-nominated star of Juno, another coming-of-age comedy in which she played an unwed pregnant teenager trying to sort out the path her life should take. Bliss timidly and with some misgiving tries to become her own person in Whip It. She doesn’t want the career of a beauty pageant winner, a life that her mother has mapped out for her. Bliss has a bit of the outlaw in her and, in her shy, quiet way, rebels against being the next Miss Bluebonnet, a title her mother (Marcia Gay Harden), won two decades earlier.

Intrigued by a group of roller-skating members of the Hurl Scouts she encounters at a shopping mall and eager to break away from the small-town shackles and small-town mentality of her hometown of Bodeen, Bliss surprises herself by going to an open audition for the team. Despite the fact that she doesn’t seem very good on roller skates, awkward and falling down a lot, team coach Razor (Andrew Wilson) sees potential.

And so begins Bliss’ secret life of bashes, bruises, brawls, screaming fans and new friends with names such as Smashley Simpson, Maggie Mayhem and Iron Maven. It’s a world away from the safety of her family and longtime high-school best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) and her after-school job waitressing at the Oink Joint barbecue restaurant. The restaurant is as classy as its name: some customers try to gobble the enormous “squealburger” in three minutes flat, getting it for free if they do.

Bliss’ new roller derby career is a secret life, keeping it from everyone except Pash who drives her to the meets and becomes her biggest fan. But her career is doubly dangerous because it’s built on a lie: Bliss tells teammates she’s 22 to get on the squad which has an age requirement of 21; in reality she’s a 17-year-old high school girl.

Barrymore keeps Whip It roaring as fast as the gals spin around the track, getting traction out of the quirky situations in the script by Shauna Cross, based on her book of the same name. Barrymore doesn’t allow the gals on the track to become stereotypes, but to develop personalities; Page’s Bliss sweetly blossoms under the mentoring of Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig of Saturday Night Live) who takes Bliss –– now known professionally as Babe Ruthless –– under her wing. She encourages Bliss to break out of her shell, but not to dispose of her past. For Bliss there’s a lot to learn about the sport and a lot to learn about herself.

As she grows comfortable on the track and with herself, Bliss develops a more daring personality, refusing to take any more grief from her high school rivals; daring to find her first love in Oliver (Landon Pigg), the lead singer in a band.

Of course, Bliss’ secret life and her “real” life are running on the same track from different directions at increasing speed and are destined for a collision. But Cross’ script doesn’t always arrive at the place one might guess. The fun of Whip It is in its unexpected situations, its wacky moments and its characters, many of them larger than life and full of surprises.

Barrymore has created a strong ensemble feel to her film and keeps the story percolating with a raft of memorable characters, starting with herself as Smashley Simpson, a roller derby princess who likes nothing better than picking a fight on the track, sometimes coming away with a bloody nose.

Also playing solidly to the audience are Jimmy Fallon (Barrymore’s costar in the Farrelly Brothers’ underappreciated Fever Pitch, here as the roller derby’s zany announcer); Juliette Lewis as Bliss’ jealous track rival, Iron Maven, and Wiig as the comforting sounding board who tries to put balance in Bliss’s life.

There’s wonderful work, too, by the freckle-faced Shawkat as the best friend who keeps Bliss’ secret, but winds up paying a price for her deception. Best of all are Daniel Stern as Bliss’ father, who may be disappointed that she wasn’t a boy who could play football, his sport of choice, yet gives Bliss the support she craves, and Harden as her mother. Harden’s Brooke may be determined to see Bliss crowned Miss Bluebonnet, but she’s not so closed minded that she’s unwilling to be open to unexpected situations that upset her plans … up to a point.

Happily, Whip It doesn’t’ always take the familiar path and the audience is rewarded with a heartening story, bumps and bruises and all.

*****Whip It

Starring: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Drew Barrymore, Kristen Wiig, Daniel Stern, Alia Shawkat, Andrew Wilson, Jimmy Fallon, Juliette Lewis, Landon Pigg.

Rated: PG-13, contains violence, adult themes, brief mild profanity.

mjanuson@projo.com