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Bend it like “Gracie”

Opening this weekend amidst the Shrek and Pirates sequels is a little movie called Gracie, about a New Jersey girl in 1978 who fights to be allowed to play on her high school’s boys soccer team after her brother dies (this was only a few years after Title IX passed, and the school doesn’t have a girl’s team).

First, how much do you love this poster?

Nobody puts Gracie in a corner! Unless it’s for a corner kick … (couldn’t resist at least one soccer joke!)

Interestingly, the movie – produced by Andrew Shue (Melrose Place) and directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) – is loosely based on the experiences of actress Elisabeth Shue (Adventures in Babysitting, Leaving Las Vegas), who grew up playing soccer with her brothers.

“The first day I showed up for my first tryout, a boy did steal my ball and tell me that girls couldn’t play soccer,” Shue said in an interview about the movie. “I definitely had lots of moments of having to overcome a lot of fear and having to live up to the pressure of playing and making sure that nobody ever said, ‘Oh, she’s good for a girl.'”

16-year-old actress Carly Schroeder (Port Charles) plays the title role, and Shue plays her mom. Dermot Mulroney rounds out the cast as the dad with really bad ’70s hair.

Gracie combines two things I love: sports movies, and movies about girls doing something everyone tells them they can’t, so I’m definitely in. But if you’re still not convinced, check out the official site, and this version of the poster:

Excellent!

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