Movies That Are More Messed Up Than They Seem is a continual piece in which our various contributors have the opportunity to examine movies that come out and are really more messed up than they were presented in trailers or by marketers (marketeers?). There will be major spoilers throughout The first movie discussed will be Gracie

Let me set up how I saw the marketing campaign for Gracie: coming of age slash sports comeback movie set against a tragic background – promised son dies right at the beginning. So to start you know there’s going to be sadness, but it seems like generally an uplifting plot. Sports heals all, women get to play the game, and we have a sort of Rocky-esque climb to the top with all sorts of training montages, slow claps and the likes.

That’s what we expect, or what I expected.

Truthfully, I only came to this movie, because of Julia Garro who plays Jena Walpen in the movie. I went to grade school with her and ever since I saw her look into the camera and say, “My name is Gwen and I like to fuck,” in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, I’ve been mesmerized. So really I came to this movie simply expecting to see Julia do something, and of course the whole adolescent sports movie etc.

What I got was something much, much darker. It’s set up the same as most sports movies – there is controversy (star player’s/son’s death) that must be overcome. But the whole uplifting-let’s-get-to-work-and-get-over-this takes a whole lot longer to get to, because, to put it simply, Gracie’s whole decent into darkness takes a long, long time, and goes deeper and darker than I thought possible in a movie of this type.

Trust me (or see the movie for yourself), she goes deep into the rabbit hole or heart of darkness or whatever you want to call it. I mean I figured there would be the whole sadness and overcoming that, but she gets to the point where she’s getting over drugs, alcohol, one night stands with college guys in the back of her car, and a father he becomes completely distant – like absurdly distant. That was one of the things that shocked me, they went 100% into this family falling apart. They did not just gloss over it like some movies do. The father goes into a deep hole too.

There’s a scene where Gracie runs up to Jena and just blurts out that she wants to do two things that she’s never done before and do them at the same time. So I think they go to the Jersey shore and she start banging some dude in the back of the car before her father comes and pulls her out.

Additionally, the whole comeback scene – not so much of a uplifting comeback. Gracie gets slide-tackled in the face – IN THE FACE. Her father beats on her – not like physically punching her in the face, but consistently says she isn’t good enough, that she should give up, that he is wasting his time. Then he usually downs another beer. Love it.

Then even in the big finale, the big Gracie finally gets on the field and plays for her dead brother game, she gets the shit kicked out of her. If I remember correctly, there’s a time where she gets tripped up and while in the air is essentially body slammed into the dirt. Good stuff. The movie really just stays dark throughout. The only gleaming moment is at the beginning when the brother is real nice to Gracie and everything, gives her a chance to prove herself by kicking a ball at a bottle on the hood of a car. Good stuff, but that’s about it. Sure at the end, she’s up there playing, making beautiful music on that field, but it’s something with a heavy bass that is kicking the shit out of her body. She’s bloodied, bruised, and probably emotionally disturbed. Dark, dark shit.