Gracie (2007)

A teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.

Director:

Davis Guggenheim

Writers:

Lisa Marie Petersen (screenplay), Karen Janszen (screenplay)

Stars:

Carly Schroeder, Andrew Shue, Elisabeth Shue

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jesse Lee Soffer	...	Johnny Bowen
Christopher Shand	...	Kyle Rhodes
Carly Schroeder	...	Grace Bowen
Karl Girolamo	...	Curt
Vasilios Mantagas	...	Craig
Donny Gray	...	Donny
Emma Bell	...	Kate Dorset
Dermot Mulroney	...	Bryan Bowen
Hunter Schroeder	...	Mike Bowen
Trevor Heins	...	Daniel Bowen
Josh Caras	...	Peter Wicker (as Joshua Caras)
Elisabeth Shue	...	Lindsay Bowen
Madison Arnold	...	Granddad
John Doman	...	Coach Colasanti
Andrew Shue	...	Coach Owen Clark

Storyline

This is the story of a teenager named Gracie Bowen, who lives in South Orange, New Jersey, is crazy about soccer, as are her three brothers and former soccer star father. Although Gracie wants to join her brothers and father in the nightly practices, she is discouraged by everyone except her elder brother, Johnny. Her father does not believe that girls should play soccer and tells her that she is neither tough enough nor talented enough to play with the boys team. 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. She faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer. But as the beautiful and strong person that she has always been but she also brings her family together in the face of their own tragedy.

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Plot Keywords:

character name as title | nickname as title | never give up | believe in yourself | soccer | 

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Taglines:

The rules of the game are about to change

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 June 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Finding Gracie

Filming Locations:

Alpine, New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,355,904, 3 June 2007, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$2,955,039, 22 July 2007

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,036,736, 26 July 2007

Company Credits

Production Co:

Elevation Filmworks, Picturehouse, Ursa Major Films LLC

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Is inspired by events in the life of Elisabeth Shue while growing up (in the same town where the movie was filmed), who played soccer with the boys for as long as she could before turning her focus to gymnastics.

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Goofs

In a scene where Gracie's mom and dad are talking in the basement, Gracie's mom is ironing laundry using an iron that is definitely post 1978, when the movie is set.

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Crazy Credits

1970s-era home video and photographs, including some of Elisabeth Shue as a child, are shown before and during the closing credits.

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Connections

Features The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962)

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Soundtracks

Funk #49
Written by Jim Fox (as James Fox), Dale Peters and Joe Walsh
Performed by James Gang (as The James Gang)
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Yes, v1.1

Carly Schroeder. I consider Lizzie McGuire to have some retrograde aspects, grit stemming from the blatant vengeance culture approach of Lizzie's family. It was a step towards me considering modern Disney to be highly suspicious, but a few years on and I have to find Disney's Lizzie McGuire, also Nickelodeon's Zoey 101, still to be head and shoulders better than most other television series for kids that I have on DVD. Carly occasionally appearing as 'Melanoma', a memorable and very beautiful but scary friend of Lizzie's scary little brother.

The past two years I have looked to see if Carly had anything else out on disk. I found Firewall, which did not appeal to me. Now I have obtained this.

This story shows that she can handle a very different role to Melina. Not that all who have commented on this would agree. In this her beauty is usually tamed down but she is trying to head in directions that often feel to be sensible. The people around her have different understandings of sensible. For me, this is the power of the story.

There is a lot of grit in this story as well. It is based on the 1970's and the males remind me of the males in such as Detroit Rock City, alien and really vomit level aggressive cavemen. The football field is not understood as a place with rules of good conduct, it is more a battlefield where the opposition are tough and players are tough even to players on their own team who they do not consider to rate good conduct. They are supposed to be tough, skilled but tough. This would never be a Dr Spock understanding of manly male? This is nothing like the bits of football or UK rugby league that I used to occasionally go to in the 1960's.

It reminds me of the world of battling 'heroes' that I occasionally noticed in sports posters, local UK in the 1990's. An alien world. In the UK 1970's I did not notice the violence in people, it was there but more a hidden thing, silent and deadly.

In this, lead character Gracie is damaged by the violence, it knocks her down for more than half a year. She shows herself as having what it takes to gradually become a survivor. For me that is not the important part of the story, what counts more as this being a story that I can find okay on a second or third viewing. It is an okay way to pass the time.

Add the soundtrack including the sort of 1970's related music that I can rate as hot.

The bird is an American Kestral, aka American Sparrowhawk. A young male, not European but very common in the USA. The commentaries add detail. These are more real than one's average commentary.