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Movies / On DVD / Gracie
Gracie

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Gracie (2007)

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Reviews Counted:88

Fresh:52

Rotten:36

Average Rating:5.8/10

Consensus: Gracie can be rousing and touching in spots, but is ultimately undone by its predictable story arc and a lack of nuance.

Runtime: 2 hrs 35 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Set in 1978, Gracie is an inspirational film about a teenage girl who overcomes the loss of her brother and fights the odds to achieve her dream of playing competitive soccer at a time when girls’... Set in 1978, Gracie is an inspirational film about a teenage girl who overcomes the loss of her brother and fights the odds to achieve her dream of playing competitive soccer at a time when girls’ soccer did not exist. Based on true events from the lives of the Shue family (producer and co-star Andrew Shue, Academy Award®-nominated actress Elisabeth Shue), the film is directed by Academy Award®-winning director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), who happens to be part of the family as well, being married to Elisabeth Shue. The film also features a terrific 1970's soundtrack including classic songs from Boston, Blondie, Aretha Franklin, and the Boss, Bruce Springsteen. Living in South Orange New Jersey, 15 year old Gracie Bowen (Carly Schroeder) is the only girl in a family of three brothers. Their family life revolves almost entirely around soccer: her father (Dermot Mulroney) and brothers are obsessed with the sport, practicing in the backyard's makeshift field every day from morning ‘til night. Tragedy unexpectedly strikes when Gracie's older brother Johnny (Jesse Lee Soffer), star of the high school varsity soccer team and Gracie's only protector, is killed in a car accident. Struggling with grief over her family's loss, Gracie decides to fill the void left on her brother's team by petitioning the school board to allow her to play on the boy's high school varsity soccer team in his place. Her father, a former soccer star himself, tries to prove to Gracie that she is not tough enough or talented enough to play with boys. Her mother, Lindsey Bowen (Elisabeth Shue) already an outsider in the sports-obsessed family, is no help either. Undeterred, Gracie finds reserves of strength she never knew existed, and persists in changing everyone's beliefs in what she is capable of, including her own. Gracie not only forces her father to wake up from his grief and see her as the beautiful and strong person that she has always been but she also brings her family together in the face of their tragedy. -- © Picturehouse [More]

Starring: Carly Schroeder, Dermot Mulroney, Elisabeth Shue, Andrew Shue

Starring: Carly Schroeder, Dermot Mulroney, Elisabeth Shue, Andrew Shue, Julia Garro, Jay Patterson, Christopher Shand, Jesse Lee, Jack Walker

Director: Davis Guggenheim

Director: Davis Guggenheim
Screenwriter: Karen Janszen, Lisa Marie Peterson
Producer: Davis Guggenheim, Andrew Shue, Elisabeth Shue, Lemore Syvan
Composer: Mark Isham
Studio: Picturehouse

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Reviews for Gracie

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1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
06/30/07
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Gracie, a tale about a teen girl blazing trails in soccer, is worthy, but it's also formulaic to a fault.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
06/01/07
Bruce Westbrook
Bruce Westbrook
Houston Chronicle

Gracie is painfully earnest, which might be OK were it not also painfully trite, painfully cliched and painfully formulaic.

Full Review Source: Baltimore Sun | comment Comment
06/02/07
Chris Kaltenbach
Chris Kaltenbach
Baltimore Sun

If you competed in high school athletics, you might be able to overlook that Gracie is just another formulaic, if well-intentioned, sports movie.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
05/31/07
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire
Associated Press

It's too bad that Gracie's story seems bent on staying on the surface of such familiar turf, rather than digging deeper to reveal what propels her.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
09/01/07
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today

It's a trite, indifferently told underdog sports story that could only have been redeemed by perfect execution.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
05/31/07
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune

For all the heartfelt emotion behind it, the movie plays out like your basic after-school special: no surprises, no suspense.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
06/01/07
Connie Ogle
Connie Ogle
Miami Herald

Lindsay suggests -- during the inevitable mother-daughter heart-to-heart -- that Gracie persist despite the many odds because Lindsay did not.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
06/09/07
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

Gracie's only achievement is technical, yet it has nothing to do with creative merit: Prints for the film, Davis Guggenheim's first feature-length fiction, will be carbon neutral.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
05/27/07
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

A nicely confident Schroeder strides though the movie as if it's a masterpiece, and Mulroney is equally charismatic. But they can't quite save Gracie from feeling like a vanity project.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
06/01/07
Elizabeth Weitzman
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News

As labors of love go, this one is harmless enough. It's just not particularly elegant or well-crafted, or even inspiring, to be worth seeking out.

Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | comment Comment
06/04/07
Eric D. Snider
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

While doing fine work otherwise, Carly Schroeder is never able to elevate the athletics of the role to make us believe the guys aren't taking it easy on her.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
05/31/07
Erik Childress
Erik Childress
eFilmCritic.com

Not a terrible movie...but it's awfully familiar--so much so that it probably should have been called Trudy.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
05/29/07
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

The movie tries a little too hard to weave in wholesome messages about how athletics can keep kids out of trouble.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Daily News | comment Comment
06/01/07
Gary Thompson
Gary Thompson
Philadelphia Daily News

The genuine sense of loss and nicely observed family details don't stand a chance against the generic buildup to the big game.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
05/31/07
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

Gracie is painless enough and, at times, even enjoyable. But it suffers from an overriding feeling that this would be better positioned as a made-for-TV feature.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
05/31/07
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Unfortunately, this is one of those times when keeping a family scrapbook would have been far more effective.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
05/31/07
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Only auds not exposed to similar inspirational sports scenarios will doubt for a second that she'll eventually succeed.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
05/31/07
Joe Leydon
Joe Leydon
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

...wouldn't know a nuance if one hit it in the face.

Full Review Source: Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) | comment Comment
05/31/07
Josh Larsen
Josh Larsen
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL)

Gracie is no failure, but its mishmash of sports tropes and melodrama doesn't satisfy the way it could have.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
05/31/07
Katey Rich
Katey Rich
Film Journal International
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
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Latest News for Gracie

September 20, 2007: Box Office Guru Preview: Jovovich vs. Alba in Multiplex Mayhem
Jodie Foster will find herself in the middle of a catfight over the number one spot this weekend. The star of current chart-topper The Brave One will face challenges from Milla... More...

June 03, 2007: Box Office Guru Wrapup: "Pirates" #1, "Knocked Up" Strong #2
Disney still claimed the most popular film in the land with "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" despite a drop that was sizable even by tentpole standards.... More...

May 31, 2007: Box Office Guru Preview: "Knocked Up" Expecting Solid Arrival
Call it the weekend of the actor/producer. Three new films with stars that do double duty behind the scenes (or have good agents that can snag a free credit) enter a marketplace... More...

May 31, 2007: Critical Consensus: "Knocked Up" Is A Knockout; "Mr. Brooks," "Gracie" Less So
This week at the movies we've got matters of life ("Knocked Up," starring Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen), death ("Mr. Brooks," starring Kevin Costner and... More...

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