Gracie strives to be G.I. Jane in shin guards, but it ends up as She's the Man without the comedy.
Gracie (2007)
Tomatometer
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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
Reviews for Gracie
How often do you see a film that's not only interested in girls' lives but equally honest about their tribulations and their potential?
Why is Gracie as processed as an after-school special? You miss the knockabout edge of Bend It Like Beckham -- though the ending, in its Pavlovian sports-flick way, pumps you up.
It's not without well-observed moments, and in the title role, Carly Schroeder makes an agreeably flawed and feisty rooting interest.
Firing on all formulaic cylinders, Gracie is heavy with tidy meaning and mealy morality.
Not a terrible movie...but it's awfully familiar--so much so that it probably should have been called Trudy.
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.
In real life, Elizabeth Shue was quite the activist, the first person in her New Jersey community to break the gender barrier in soccer: this is her charming(fictionalized)story.
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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