Gracie is an inspirational story about a girl who copes with a family tragedy by throwing herself into competitive sport.
With three brothers, Gracie (Carly Schroeder) has to fend for herself in a family that's mad for soccer. Even dad (Dermot Mulroney) is a former soccer champ, and he coaches the boys.
When the oldest son in the family dies, everything changes.
Dad is mired in grief. Mom (Elisabaeth Shue) tries to keep everything together. Gracie, depressed and desperate for her father's attention, decides to get serious about soccer and maybe take her brother's place -- both on the school team and in the affections of her family.
The problem is that it's 1978 in the state of New Jersey, and there are no girl soccer teams where Gracie lives.
She tries out for the boys' team. Gracie has to get very, very good at the game. She also has to petition the school board to let her play on the boys' varsity team. And she has to convince her father that she's a talented enough player to make the grade. It's an uphill battle, but one that helps everyone in her family survive their loss.
Despite the "All-American" elements of the story and the uplifting notion of sport as a metaphor for life, Gracie has a lot more grit than typical films of the genre.
Besides coping with her brother's death, Gracie also has to make her way through the rigours of adolescence, and the story shows her struggle with competition, boyfriends, bullying, rebellion. Her best friend reminds her, for example, that women in sport are generally held to be lesbians.
Gracie is an intelligent family film (not the oxymoron it sounds) if by "family film" you mean something you, the kids and granny could all enjoy.
There is a story that goes with Gracie, and it's this: The film is based on the real experiences of Elisabeth Shue and her family and the death of her older brother, William, to whom the movie is dedicated. Her brother, Andrew Shue, plays a soccer coach in Gracie and her brother John is one of the producers; the director, Davis Guggenheim (who won an Oscar for the documentary An Inconvenient Truth) is her husband.
Although some details have been changed, Gracie is the true story of a family coping with loss and of a young woman distinguishing herself through sport.
Bruce Springsteen has even given the film his own rare seal of approval by providing a song for the soundtrack -- something he almost never does. See that? Even the Boss likes Gracie.
(This film is rated PG)
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