When I first picked up “Gracie,” I thought I was in for a feel-good family film about a girl who wanted to play soccer. What I ended up with was a deeply-involved drama about a family torn apart who struggled to pull things back together. I have to say, though, I wasn’t disappointed in the film, even though my expectations were so far off base.
“Gracie” is loosely based on the lives of actors Andrew and Elisabeth Shue, who also have roles within the film. Gracie Bowen (Carly Schroeder) is the only daughter in a family of athletic boys, and she’s treated like a sub-species because she’s a girl. Her only ally is Johnny, her older brother, who teaches her how to play soccer and supports her in her ambitions. Himself a soccer star, he’s under a lot of pressure from their father, Brian (Dermot Mulroney) to whom winning is everything. When Johnny misses the crucial shot and loses his game, he’s crushed. Going out for a post-game commiseration with his team, he’s in a car accident and is killed.
For a long time, the Bowen family doesn’t know how to function. Brian is distraught and can think of nothing else. His wife, Lindsay, (Elisabeth Shue) tries to hold the rest of the family together, but she’s only one person and the children need their father. Most of all, Gracie is suffering. Johnny was more to her than a brother—he was the one person who believed in her.
Looking for a way to deal with her grief, Gracie decides she’s going to take Johnny’s place on the soccer team. Her father, who had trained Johnny, refuses to train her, saying she’s just a girl. Her mother isn’t supportive, either, telling her that girls just have the rotten end of the stick in life. Feeling completely rejected and abandoned, Gracie tries to rebel, smoking and going out with boys, but when she loses her nerve and doesn’t spend the night with Kyle, a boy on the soccer team, he labels her and makes her life even more miserable than it already is.
We go with Gracie as her father finally realizes that she’s crying out for help and takes her under his wing, training her for the team. She has to go up against the school board to get permission to try out, but in the end, she proves her worth as a soccer player.
The ending is a little predictable, but we’ve had enough twists and turns throughout the story to keep us engaged. I did find Gracie a little hard to like from time to time—in her grieved state, she couldn’t find room for softness much of the story. But we plainly see where she’s coming from and why she’s acting the way she is.
There is a little language and some violence as Gracie is roughed up on the field, but nothing over the top. I recommend this PG-13 rated movie for you and your older children.
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