Review of Gracie (2007) by Chads. — 13 Jun 2007

As the July issue of Playboy featuring gold-medal winning Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard is due to hit the stands any day now, suddenly, this slight entry to the inspirational sports movie genre seems seismic in its importance.

Although "Gracie" overgeneralizes a bit(soccer is not a preventive measure against teen pregnancy), it does do a decent job of capturing the social mores of the recent past, when female athletes were largely marginalized on the basis of their sex.

Carly Schroeder(the girl from "Mean Creek" is all grown up now; keep your clothes on Carly) doesn't convince you of her athleticism through her on-field exploits(credit the editor); she does it with her face.

This is a very good young actress. Beard's decision to disrobe is a tragic one; so utterly antithetical to the spirit of Title IX and all the young girls who said, "F*** cheerleading. I wanna play," you just want to slap her.

There's a moment in "Gracie" that speaks volumes about the positive ramifications of women gaining full access to an arena that was previously the domain of men. It's a small scene, but a key one, in which Gracie stands in front of a full-length mirror; not to check on the progress of her boobs, but rather, the muscles she had developed on her biceps from weight-training and chin-ups.

If it wasn't for Title IX, the life of a certain young teenage girl might've turned out differently.