Reviews

Gracie

A familiar girl-power tale

By BROOKE HOLGERSON | May 30, 2007

1.5 Stars

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Gracie.

“Inspired by” the life of actress Elizabeth Shue (the film is directed by her husband, Davis Guggenheim, and Shue plays a small role), Gracie treads territory familiar to anyone who’s seen a sports movie in the past 10 years. Carly Schroeder’s Gracie is the only daughter in a soccer-obsessed family who are trying to get over a tragedy. She thinks she can win the love of her taciturn dad (Dermot Mulroney, looking suitably rough around the edges) by trying out for the boys’ soccer team (it’s 1978, and there is no girls team) and weathering the increasingly hostile abuse of the male players. It’s a familiar girl-power tale, and Guggenheim does nothing to reinvent it, hitting each expected mark with rote predictability. He has as much passion for the movie as Gracie is supposed to feel for soccer; you’re left to wonder why either bothered.

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Topics: Reviews , Elisabeth Shue , Davis Guggenheim , Dermot Mulroney

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