Gracie (2007)

“I’m not risking the success of my team for one girl.” – Coach Colasanti

Number of Times Seen – 1 (20 Jul 2015)

Brief Synopsis – A teenage girl during the 1970’s fights for the right to play on a local boys soccer team.

My Take on it –Inspiration true sport stories are a very popular genre in movies, but it is a bit rare for it to be based on the life of an actor.

This movie is somewhat based on events in the life of actress Elisabeth Shue when she was a teenager who wanted to play boy’s soccer.

What’s interesting is that not only does she play her own mother, but her husband is the director and her brother also has a prominent role.  (They both also had a hand in writing the story).

I really liked the idea of this movie, but felt slightly disappointed that it just felt like a generic sports movie and that it lacked the “kick” that one would hope for to help it rise above feeling average.

Truly a pity, because I wanted to like this one much more.

Shue, Dermot Mulroney and Carly Schroeder all give emotional performances that show their talent.

Many of the scenes are at the same time sensationalized for film but also feel watered down to a point where it felt like an after-school special that they use to have on TV during the 70’s and the 80’s but without the real message at the end.

Knowing that Shue was a soccer fan as a young teenager gives a whole new meaning to all the soccer scenes in The Karate Kid (1984) 🙂

I give a lot of credit to Shue and her family for being interested in allowing us to get a glimpse of intimate and personal moments of their lives, I just woish it would have resonated more with me.

Bottom Line – Very loosely based on the events of the life of Shue and is obviously both sensationalized and watered down that it feels too much like a made for TV after-school special with a social message like they made in the 70’s and 80’s.  Interesting idea that just doesn’t have the “kick” one would hope for.

MovieRob’s Favorite 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. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy

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