Gracie: DVD & Movie Review (2007) by Christopher Smith

The new soccer movie, "Gracie," is a personal tale about one teenage girl's struggle to come into her own in the wake of her brother's death.

That her dysfunctional family also is sorting out its emotions makes for a story in which grieving is the undercurrent, with the film's main character, Gracie Bowen (Carly Schroeder), proving the unwitting vehicle that sees them through.

The film comes from Davis Guggenheim, the Academy Award-winning director of the global-warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," and what he creates is something of a polished, fictionalized home movie.

"Gracie" is, after all, a family affair.

Guggenheim conceived the story and co-produced it with his brother-in-law, Andrew Shue. Together, with Andrew featured in a small role, they based their story on the formidable early years of Andrew's sister and Guggenheim's wife, Elisabeth Shue ("Leaving Las Vegas"), who as a young girl in New Jersey was the only female student to play in the then male-dominated sport.

For Guggenheim and the Shues, the idea was to create a movie that honored Andrew and Elisabeth's brother Will, who died in 1988 after a tragic accident, as well as the family's love for soccer, which was fueled by their father Jim, who captained the Harvard College team in 1958.

What they have crafted is a solid, well-acted movie that rides the rails of formula, but which isn't afraid to veer off them in key moments that keep the movie appealingly off center.

Set in 1978, the film follows Gracie's rapidly dissolving relationship with her mother (Shue) and father (Dermot Mulroney) after her brother (Jesse Lee Soffer), a local star soccer player, dies in a car accident.

When Gracie decides she has what it takes to join the boy's team herself (with the help of Title IX), she endures the very discrimination that policy is there to protect--from her classmates to her younger brothers and especially to her father, a former soccer player who scoffs at her decision to play in ways that push Gracie toward sexual recklessness and then, once he supports her, toward athletic success.

That none of it comes easy is one reason the film resonates. Further lifting it is that Guggenheim doesn't shy away from the notion that some believe if a female athlete takes on a sport associated with males, then her sexuality must be put into question. Gracie feels that pressure, but her unwavering focus is such that it consumes at least part of the sting.

It's Schroeder's winning performance, though, that makes the film--her brooding, convincing turn helps to quash the typical sports movie cliches the script courts. She proves a highlight in a story that will speak volumes to those who have been marked by discrimination, regardless of their age or gender, and who have overcome it to excel.

Grade: B