Sometimes the worst movies result from the best of intentions, and that's what happened to Gracie. On  the surface an earnest and unassuming, albeit somewhat hokey, sports-oriented drama, this film uses each of its 95 minutes not only to regurgitate every cliche of the genre but also to ruin its noble premise with a painfully simplistic and darn near condescending storytelling approach.

It's 1978 in South Orange, New Jersey. Gracie Bowen (Carly Schroeder), an average teenage girl, is full of spunk and energy, but her dad (Dermot Mulroney) won't let her play soccer with her three brothers. This sport means a lot to the Bowen clan, although the legacy is in danger of coming to an end after the eldest brother, the school soccer star, dies in a tragic accident. While her dad is quick to abandon all hope, Gracie isn't about to let her beloved brother's memory slip away so easily. She plans to honor her sibling by trying out for the boys' soccer team and showing everyone what she can do. It's easier said than done, however, for it's a time when girls weren't encouraged to take part in sports, and Gracie's own father refuses to train her for fear she'll get hurt. However, despite an army of detractors and her own waning self-confidence, Gracie sets out to improve her skills and show the world she has every right to play with the big boys.

I appreciate it when a sports-heavy picture tries to be about something more than the obligatory, all-important Big Game. Miracle did a great job showing the strength of a team which the entire world had already counted out, as did We Are Marshall and its story about a college town recovering from a tragic loss. Although I hoped Gracie would follow suit and emerge as an admirable tale of breaking down gender barriers in the world of sports, it ends up being more like a feature-length temper tantrum, the story of a girl whose soccer talents are mediocre at best but who whines when no one lets her play. I'm all for individuals having the right to follow their hearts and accomplish their dreams, but Gracie makes it hard to root for a heroine who's obviously not a great player yet condemns those who tell her she's not good enough to join the team.

In the meantime, director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) seems to spend most of his time checking off an epic list of the many sports cliches emerging over the course of the movie. Some of these elements come across as laughably cheesy, from a near-psychotic player who makes it his mission to lash out at Gracie at every turn to Gracie's younger brothers, who start fighting over who gets their older brother's room before his corpse is even cold. The symbolic imagery isn't exactly subtle either (that caged bird can't be there for anything else). As far as the acting goes, Schroeder's performance as Gracie falls pretty flat, and Elisabeth Shue (whose own family inspired the film's story) is relegated to a one-note "Concerned Mom" part, although Mulroney fares decently as Gracie's sullen dad.

There's probably a heck of a movie to be made out of Gracie's premise, so I'm disappointed this film didn't turn out to be the passionate tale it set out to be. For me, it seemed more like a cornball melodrama with about as much emotional sublety as a soccer ball to the face.

MY RATING: * 1/2 (out of ****)

(Released by Sony Pictures and rated "PG-13" for brief sexual content.)