It's too bad that Gracie's story seems bent on staying on the surface of such familiar turf, rather than digging deeper to reveal what propels her.

Ends up more like a middling after-school special than an insightful look at family dynamics.

[Actress Schroeder] gives Gracie a credibly rugged edge, building her into a mini-tower of blond ambition and almost rescuing the role from cliché. Almost, but not quite, not when burdened with a script so proudly rooted in uplift's trite traditions.

The reason these formulaic films work is they give sports fans what we want: a hard-working underdog we can root for and a sense that the sports we love have some deeper meaning.