Gracie: Critic Reviews

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.

A familiar underdog story told with unusual sensitivity, Davis Guggenheim's Gracie depicts the obstacles faced by a young girl who dreams of playing on her high school soccer team.

It's too bad that Gracie's story seems bent on staying on the surface of such familiar turf, rather than digging deeper to reveal what propels her.

Heavy on hokum but easy to like, thanks to the spunky Schroeder.

Does Gracie work as a movie? Just close enough, and closer still for a young soccer player who may already know her sports movie cliches but also recognizes when they touch on something once and truly felt.

Firing on all formulaic cylinders, Gracie is heavy with tidy meaning and mealy morality.

A nicely confident Schroeder strides though the movie as if it's a masterpiece, and Mulroney is equally charismatic. But they can't quite save Gracie from feeling like a vanity project.

Gracie, a tale about a teen girl blazing trails in soccer, is worthy, but it's also formulaic to a fault.

A truly winning American soccer movie has yet to be made, but Gracie is good enough to play for a tie.

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.

Gracie does hold you, in its oversimplified and sentimental way, and it deals with a real issue in semi-real fashion -- half-Hollywood, half-actual life, or something like it.

The genuine sense of loss and nicely observed family details don't stand a chance against the generic buildup to the big game.

[Director] Guggenheim doesn't bring much visual style to the game. But he brings heart (and some Bruce Springsteen on the soundtrack) to the story of a lost Jersey girl redeemed by sport. Yeah, I cried. And cheered. You will too.

It's a trite, indifferently told underdog sports story that could only have been redeemed by perfect execution.

All the film's good intentions are still somewhat undercut by its corn content.

It would be easy to dismiss this drama about a high school girl who goes out for the boys' soccer team as something we've all seen before. But that would be ignoring the movie's plucky appeal.

Only auds not exposed to similar inspirational sports scenarios will doubt for a second that she'll eventually succeed.

It's puzzling to watch someone present her own life in terms of cliche.

Gracie is an engaging sports drama about a girl, a soccer ball and a family lost in grief.

Ends up more like a middling after-school special than an insightful look at family dynamics.

[Actress Schroeder] gives Gracie a credibly rugged edge, building her into a mini-tower of blond ambition and almost rescuing the role from cliche. Almost, but not quite, not when burdened with a script so proudly rooted in uplift's trite traditions.

Gracie is a gentle, easygoing picture -- it's not exactly dramatically gripping, but somehow, its spirit carries it through.

Gracie is painless enough and, at times, even enjoyable. But it suffers from an overriding feeling that this would be better positioned as a made-for-TV feature.

It's not without well-observed moments, and in the title role, Carly Schroeder makes an agreeably flawed and feisty rooting interest.

If you competed in high school athletics, you might be able to overlook that Gracie is just another formulaic, if well-intentioned, sports movie.