Gracie (2007) - Critic Reviews

75

Scott Tobias The A.V. Club

There's a reason the underdog sports formula is followed over and over: When it's executed as skillfully as it is here, the damned thing works every time.

75

William Arnold Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A familiar but rewarding little parable.

63

James Berardinelli ReelViews

For all its faults, Gracie is made with enough grace to get us rooting for the protagonist.

63

Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune

Dermot Mulroney takes the largest male role, that of the driven ex-soccer star and patriarch of the onscreen family. From certain angles he looks like a Shue too.

60

Desson Thomson Washington Post

Directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"), the movie is heavy on hokum but easy to like, thanks to the spunky Schroeder.

50

Sheri Linden The Hollywood Reporter

For all the personal ties to the material, the film too often reaches for broad-strokes inspiration in a way that feels generic.

50

Village Voice

Firing on all formulaic cylinders, Gracie is heavy with tidy meaning and mealy morality; the most dubious idea here is that if you don't let a girl play soccer, she just may turn to cigarettes, halter tops, and sex with the starting forward

50

Joe Leydon Variety

Modestly engaging but thoroughly predictable.

50

Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly

You miss the knockabout edge of "Bend It Like Beckham" -- though the ending, in its Pavlovian sports-flick way, pumps you up.

40

Austin Chronicle

There's a lot of angry prejudice toward women playing soccer in the film, and a semi-fun "Footloose"-esque scene in which Gracie petitions the school board for the freedom to play. But melodrama reigns supreme as the film disintegrates into movie-of-the-week predictability.