Gracie
CW Television Network | Release Date: June 1, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
16
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
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. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
A familiar but rewarding little parable. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
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. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
For all its faults, Gracie is made with enough grace to get us rooting for the protagonist. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
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. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The New Jersey locations and soundtrack help ground the story in a particular time and place, and Schroeder delivers a terrific performance. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
An inspirational sports movie, soccer subdivision, and it stops at every expected station of the cross on its road to the triumphant against-all-odds finale (in sudden-death overtime, yet). Yet it also feels appealingly handmade in a way most jock dramas don't. Read full review
60
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"), the movie is heavy on hokum but easy to like, thanks to the spunky Schroeder. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesLael Loewenstein
An earnest, well-acted, poignant drama that nevertheless runs afoul of sports movie clichés. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
A familiar underdog story told with unusual sensitivity. Read full review
60
SalonStephanie Zacharek
A gentle, easygoing picture -- it's not exactly dramatically gripping, but somehow, its spirit carries it through. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterSheri Linden
For all the personal ties to the material, the film too often reaches for broad-strokes inspiration in a way that feels generic. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichelle Orange
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 Read full review
50
VarietyJoe Leydon
Modestly engaging but thoroughly predictable. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
You miss the knockabout edge of "Bend It Like Beckham" -- though the ending, in its Pavlovian sports-flick way, pumps you up. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Gracie is ably played by Carly Schroeder, and the tale of her uphill battle to play competitive soccer is based on the youthful activism of actress Elisabeth Shue. Shue was the first person in her New Jersey community to break down the hurdles erected to keep girls from the sport. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The genuine sense of loss and nicely observed family details don't stand a chance against the generic buildup to the big game. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
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 that will appeal mostly to middle-school soccer teams, and various extended members of the Shue family. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianStephen Whitty
The script is simply shameless, taking some of the details of the Shues' lives and then slathering them with a thick layer of Hollywood frosting. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Gracie is painfully earnest, which might be OK were it not also painfully trite, painfully cliched and painfully formulaic. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Guggenheim managed to turn a Power Point presentation into a crowd-pleasing Academy Award winner, but he can't do much to free Gracie from its constraints and clichés. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Falls into the category of heart-warming sports yarns, and, if television still made movies-of-the-week, it would enjoy a rightful home. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleToddy Burton
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. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle Smith
Considering that Gracie says nothing that hasn't been said in dozens of films, one does wonder whether Hollywood is being as diligent as it could be in digging up fresh story ideas. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
Sporadic on-field violence is only a tiny reason that Gracie disappoints, but it's indicative of the film's greater problem. Producers Elisabeth and Andrew Shue seem so intent on creating a hero out of the main character and villains out of almost everyone else, that they've completely distorted reality. Read full review
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