2007 film by Davis Guggenheim
Gracie
is a 2007 American
sports
drama film
directed by
Davis Guggenheim
. It stars
Carly Schroeder
as Gracie Bowen,
Dermot Mulroney
as Bryan Bowen,
Elisabeth Shue
as Lindsay Bowen,
Jesse Lee Soffer
as Johnny Bowen, and
Andrew Shue
as Coach Owen Clark.
[1]
Gracie
takes place in
New Jersey
in 1978, before 1972's
Title IX
had taken much effect in women's college sports
[2]
and when organized
women's soccer
was still very rare in the United States. Gracie, the film's central
protagonist
, overcomes the loss of her brother by convincing her family and school to allow her to play
varsity soccer
on an all-boys team. The story is partially based on the childhood experiences of
Elisabeth Shue
, who was one of the producers in addition to being the wife of Davis Guggenheim, the director, as well as a cast member.
The novelization of
Gracie
, written by
Suzanne Weyn
, was released in June 2007.
[3]
Plot
[
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]
In the year 1978, Gracie Bowen, a 15-year-old
tomboy
who lives in
South Orange, New Jersey
, is crazy about
soccer
, as are her three brothers and their former soccer star father. Although Gracie wants to join her brothers and neighbor Kyle in the nightly practices her father runs, she is discouraged by everyone except her older brother, Johnny.
Johnny, Gracie and Kyle attend
Columbia High School
, where Johnny is the captain and star player for the varsity soccer team. After missing a shot at the end of a game, the despondent Johnny drives off with a friend's car and dies in a traffic accident.
Struggling with grief, Gracie decides that she wants to replace her brother on the team. Her father does not believe that girls should play soccer, telling her she is neither tough nor talented enough. Her mother is a
nurse
who lacks the competitive drive of the rest of her family and fears for Gracie's safety. Her mother later tells Gracie that she would have liked to become a
surgeon
, but that option had not been available to her as a woman.
Rejected and depressed, Gracie begins to rebel; she stops doing her schoolwork, is caught cheating on an exam, and experiments with wild and self-destructive behavior. She is finally caught by her father almost having sex with a guy she met near the docks after telling her friend, "I want to do something that I've never done before." This serves as a wake-up call for her parents, particularly her father. He quits his job to work with her on her soccer training.
When the school board rejects her request to play boys' soccer, Gracie files an appeal. Citing the newly passed
Title IX
, Gracie argues that since a girls' soccer team does not exist, she should be allowed to play on the boys' varsity soccer team. The school board allows her to try out for the team. After a very rough tryout, she makes the
junior varsity
team and has to decide if she is willing to settle for playing at that level. She decides to make the most of playing on junior varsity.
One of the coaches asks her to come up to the main team for their championship game. After saying no at first she finally goes. Gracie watches from the bench as the game goes to
sudden death overtime
. New captain Kyle gets hurt and Gracie goes in for him, scoring the winning goal with a move that her dad taught her.
Cast
[
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Historical background
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The premise of the film rests upon the conflicting expectations of two different
American
generations. As Gracie's parents were most likely both products of what is now referred to as the "
Silent Generation
" of children born during the
Great Depression
and
World War II
, they would have been raised to adhere to traditional
gender roles
.
[4]
This would have included discouraging a girl from participating in "boys' sports" such as soccer, as opposed to "girls' sports" such as
cheerleading
or
gymnastics
.
[5]
Gracie, on the other hand, came of age during the 1970s, when
new and controversial ideas about gender
were being introduced.
[6]
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, critic for the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
,
noted an additional generation gap between those in the film and those in the audience, many of whom grew up with the
United States women's national soccer team
(which played its first game in 1985) as a reality:
Not so long ago ? 1978, actually ? girls were not treated equally with boys when it came to school sports ... what happens in
Gracie
must seem like a tale from the
Dark Ages
to today's young athletes, something akin to
slaying a dragon
or
housekeeping for seven dwarfs
. But think of it this way: In 1978, future gold medalist and
World Cup
star
Mia Hamm
was only 6 years old.
[7]
Other critics have also noted the multiple generation gaps. Kevin Cahillane observes in the
New York Times
that, "this being 1978 (before
Title IX
turned a generation of girls from onlookers into athletes), her desire goes against the wishes of the coach, the principal, the other players and her heartbroken parents."
[2]
In another article for the
New York Times,
Jeannette Catsoulis further argues that, "[Gracie] is accustomed to having her abilities overlooked ... When tragedy strikes, and Grace channels her grief into a resolution to play on the all-male varsity team, even her best friend is horrified. As everyone knows, only lesbians play soccer."
[8]
The film closes with the following remarks: "Thanks to
Title IX
and brave girls like Gracie, there are over 5 million girls who play soccer in America. Since 1991 the
U.S. Women's National team
has won Soccer's World Championships four times." (FIFA Women's World Cup Champions 1991, 1999, 2015, and 2019)
Production
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Development and casting
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The film is loosely based on life events concerning the Shue family. Former
Melrose Place
star
Andrew Shue
, who developed the film, was one of its producers, and acted a supporting role in the film, initially conceived of it as a story about his late brother William, the oldest Shue sibling, who was the captain of the
Columbia High School
soccer team that won the
New Jersey state championship
in 1978; he had died in an accident in 1988.
[2]
As Andrew developed the idea with his brother-in-law
Davis Guggenheim
, the director of
An Inconvenient Truth
,
the storyline began to shift towards Guggenheim's wife,
Elisabeth Shue
, Andrew's older sister. She became the model for Gracie, and William became the model for Johnny. As Andrew Shue noted in an interview:
... It was going to be about my older brother, originally. It was really Davis, my sister's husband, who pointed out to me that my sister was the real underdog in our family. I didn't know the emotional turmoil of a girl in an all-boys family trying to get some credit for the fact that she had this courage to play with boys. She has gone from being a girl who was scared, to being this brave girl who could stand up and play with boys, and [went] into acting before any of us and inspired all of us in many ways. So I wanted to celebrate her and her journey.
[4]
This refers to Elisabeth Shue's own decision in 1972, at the age of nine, to play soccer on an all-boys team, making her the first girl in the South Orange and Maplewood areas of
New Jersey
to do so.
[9]
Shue explained her reason for doing so in a 2007 interview. "There was no other choice back then," she pointed out to the interviewer. "There was no girls team to play on."
[9]
Shue continued to play on the team until 1976, when she turned 13. Of her decision to leave the team, Shue stated, "the movie is really what would have happened if I hadn't quit [playing soccer]. I quit because of what people would think of me. The pressure from the boys. The awkward development of my body. I really, really regret it. I wish I'd been brave enough."
[2]
Andrew, Elizabeth, their brother John (who was also a producer on the film), and Guggenheim then engaged in an extensive search to find the right actress for the role of fifteen-year-old Gracie; they promoted the search on the website
findinggracie.com.
[10]
[11]
The role eventually went to athlete-actress
Carly Schroeder
. Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat argue that Schroeder "puts in a stellar performance as the teenager who becomes a warrior when most of her peers are cheering from the sidelines."
[12]
Filming took partial place at
Columbia High School
, both the setting of the events of the film and the actual high school the Shue family members had attended.
[13]
Filming also took place in various locations in
South Plainfield, New Jersey
.
Andrew Shue chose to honor his former Dartmouth and Columbia High School teammate Chris Colasanti by naming the story's coach after him. Colasanti, who had been the captain of Columbia's 1985 state championship team, was killed in the
September 11, 2001 attack
on the World Trade Center.
[14]
Reception
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Reviews
[
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]
At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper
gave
Gracie
"Two
Thumbs up
", stating, "You've seen it before, but you'll rarely see it better."
[15]
Gracie
is a
New York Times
Critics' Pick.
Times critic Jeannette Catsoulis described
Gracie
as "a familiar underdog story told with unusual sensitivity ...
Gracie
connects the adversity-drama dots ? the beat-down, the bounce-back, the last-minute support from an unexpected quarter ? with a subtle awareness of the shock waves of bereavement. Balancing the emotional complexity is Chris Manley's refreshingly unaffected cinematography; the drama of a free kick, like that of a good movie, is best viewed through a steady lens."
[16]
Bill Zwecker, of the
Chicago Sun-Times
,
stated, "It's a sweet and uplifting film, and though quite predictable, gives us a family drama that showcases simple truths about overcoming seemingly impossible odds and leaves you with a warm and very satisfying feeling deep down. It's a solid, hopeful and inspiring story that reminds us of what we might call 'old-fashioned' values about perseverance and making your dreams come true. Old-fashioned? Not at all."
[17]
Owen Gleiberman of
Entertainment Weekly
argued that "in 1978, a high school girl playing competitive soccer wasn't just novel ? it was barely heard of. This amiable rouser, based on the experiences of Elisabeth Shue and her family, tries to convey how gutsy and role-smashing it is for ... Gracie to cleat her way onto an all-boys soccer team. So why is Gracie as processed as an
after-school special
? You miss the knockabout edge of
Bend It Like Beckham
? though the ending, in its
Pavlovian
sports-flick way, pumps you up."
[18]
Scott Tobias of
The A.V. Club
suggested that "though
Gracie
fashions Shue's story into ready-made inspirational formula, it's nonetheless vivid in its particulars, from the looks and sounds of late-'70s New Jersey to the portrait of a soccer-driven family reformed by loss."
[19]
Lael Loewenstein of the
Los Angeles Times
stated that
Gracie
is "an earnest, well-acted, poignant drama that nevertheless runs afoul of
sports movie cliches
."
[20]
The film received a 61% rating from
Rotten Tomatoes
based on 93 reviews, with an average rating of 5.90/10. The consensus reads, "Gracie can be rousing and touching in spots, but is ultimately undone by its predictable story arc and a lack of nuance."
[21]
Box office
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On a budget of $9 million, the limited release film made about $4 million at the box office and over $3 million in rentals.
Awards
[
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- Heartland Film Festival,
Truly Moving Sound Award
[22]
Soundtrack
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The soundtrack contains a number of popular
classic rock
songs, many of which are from the year 1978.
Songs included in the CD
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The CD was released in 2007 by Lakeshore Records.
[23]
Songs not included in the CD
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Soundtrack
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Lakeshore Records also released a CD of the film's score, composed by
Mark Isham
.
- Free Kick (3:03)
- Johnny (3:22)
- Gracie's Revelation (2:22)
- Shit Sandwich (1:56)
- I Am Tough Enough (1:04)
- Granddad (1:21)
- Let Me Help You (1:13)
- Asphalt Soccer (1:42)
- You Were Like A Star (1:32)
- Appealing The Board (1:45)
- Lindsay's Speech (1:06)
- I Coach YOU Now (:56)
- First Two Cuts (2:48)
- Third Cut (2:18)
- JV Practice (2:27)
- Letting Go (1:14)
- Gracie's Free Kick/Beating Kingston (8:57)
See also
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References
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External links
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