Gracie Release Date: June 1, 2007 Studio: Picturehouse Director: Davis Guggenheim
Screenwriter: Karen Janszen, Lisa Marie Peterson Starring: Elisabeth Shue, Dermot Mulroney, Carly Schroeder, Andrew Shue Genre: Drama MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for brief sexual content) Official Website: FindingGracie.com | MySpace.com/Graciethemovie
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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.— More here
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REVIEWS:
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Heavy with tidy meaning and mealy morality
Michelle Orange
Village Voice
In what could be construed as a very expensive home movie, the Shues
(siblings Elisabeth and Andrew, of the proud glares and somewhat
less reliable acting ability) rally to tell the story of how soccer
saved a family in the wake of an eldest son's death.
Plays out like an extended television commercial
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine
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.
Two
stars out of four
Christy Lemire
AP Movie Critic
"Gracie" - If you competed in high school athletics, this
might strike a chord and you might be able to overlook the fact that
it's just another formulaic, if well-intentioned, sports movie.
Gracie Can't Bend It: Teenage girl soccer star defies all obstacles
to boredom.
Kelly Vance
East Bay Express
Sure, it's pretty much a true story. And yes, it's arguably gratifying
to see a picked-on young female athlete overcome sexism and her
own doubts to realize her dreams. But trying to make believe that
Gracie is something more than just another cornball coming-of-age
sports story is difficult to do
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