Gracie’s Choice Sparks the Heart and Head (Kristen Bell Delivered in this True Story)

Admit it - the idea of a Lifetime movie makes you cringe. You want to laugh at anyone who watches them. More than that, you want to laugh, then mock, and feel superior. Well, I’m going to admit that I just finished watching the Lifetime original movie Gracie’s Choice. And you know what? I fear no mockers. (I have it on pretty good authority that you’ve watched TV show episodes of a certain ‘Warrior Princess’ known as Xena.)

I sought this Lifetime DVD out because it stars one of my favorite actresses, Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Heroes). Bell acts in this wonderfully, as does Anne Heche (Men in Trees). But that is the last you’ll hear about them in this review. I could gush at how cute Kristen is (believe me, I could!) but I’m going to focus and simply share with you why I loved this story.

It is based on a true story of a teenage girl who lives with several step-siblings and takes care of them in lieu of a mom. They actually do have a mom, however she’s not winning any mom-of-the-year awards (I don’t think Michael Scott of The Office would even give her a Dundie award). She’s selfish, drug-addicted, and needless to say, rather unreliable when it comes to anything, ever. This forces the children (including Gracie) to fend for themselves and endure horrible living conditions that don’t contain any actual home, let alone a daily supply of food (it’s enough to make me grateful for the times I’ve had to eat cardboard masquerading as Ramen). And that’s only the beginning of the list.

Gracie’s Choice allowed me to step into Gracie’s troubled and worn shoes (as though I were reading a small, sacred diary found under a mattress) and see life from her particular vantage point. It’s not hard to connect with Gracie’s character because she experiences trials that many of us have felt an angle of (for instance: loneliness). Once I connected, I was swept into the story as though it were unfolding in real time before my eyes. I was a witness.

Too often we forget how other people live, because we don’t want to deal with it, or we never see it around us. We believe that our problems are the greatest. It’s just…how we are. Maybe instinct? Maybe because we’re caught up (often justifiably) in our own worlds and lives. (Believe me, when you start to worry about everything wrong with the world you end up curled in the fetal position, listening to Sarah McLachalan CDs for days. The best cure for this is to have a best friend who will bring you Arrested Development DVDs, force-feed you Sesame Chicken, and remind you that there are still good things in this world, and also - no one expects you to fix everything that is wrong in it. …Unless you have really judgmental parents. Then maybe you need to date someone with a motorcycle and quit Med school to become a mime.)

While watching (as well as after the fact) I felt a sense of ‘if Gracie can manage so much, surely I must at least be able to (insert a painfully small task that needs doing in my life)’ in the sort of way that sounds magnificently hokey (I know) but really makes me feel empowered (*Wonder Woman stance /Buffy pose*) to do things in my life that I have been too lazy or fearful of attempting.

I’m going to use the ‘I’ word now. Inspiration. We (as a society) pull that word out a lot. But is that a bad thing? Does it possibly mean that there are simply plenty of reasons for us to cite someone as an inspiration? I think that’s actually a good thing.

The downside here is that the word ‘inspriation’ loses meaning with more use. But it never makes one inspiration any less than it is. In my instance, she may not have inspired me (right now) to do something as large as what she did (I’m still working on cooking pancakes that don’t burn). Nonetheless her story affected my life. And I’m just one person. Who knows what her story may inspire you to do

The other biggest pull this story has is the way it talks about family. This is a touchy subject for me. Which, actually made it all the more relevant for me to view and reflect upon. As you might expect, this story does end happily - and I found myself in the sort of teary-eyed, smiley, sort of way that you appreciate more than you may want to admit.

Buy Gracie’s Choice - under $5.00