Gracie

...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.

The movie is at once treacly, heartfelt, and, in the soccer scenes at least, hard-hitting.

...Gracie is made with enough grace to get us rooting for the protagonist. This is due more to the heartfelt performance of actress Carly Schroeder than it is the less-than-inspired inspirational screenplay...

...ultimately succeeds because it feels like the passion project that it is...

...Gracie is neither a conventional tomboy nor a little plaster saint — she feels like a real kid who has the need to challenge received wisdom, then discovers inner resources she wasn't sure she had.