An uplifting underdog of a summer movie had its start in a family with Maine ties.

“Gracie” was a work of love for producer Andrew Shue and actress Elisabeth Shue, who spent summers in Maine with their dad Jim Shue, a Hampden resident.

The film was even more of a family affair than that. Elisabeth’s husband, Davis Guggenheim, who directed the Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” helmed the film, while brother John Shue helped with finances. Two more siblings, Harvey, a junior at Hampden Academy, and Jenna, who just finished up her freshman year at Dartmouth, had cameos in and offered script ideas for “Gracie.”

Entertaining each other is something that the elder Shues have always done together. Jim recalled that, after he and his wife divorced and the kids came to summer in Maine, his then-home in Waldo County had no phone or TV.

“Being creative was the only option,” Jim said. “We made a few home movies with a syncopated tape recorder. So ‘Gracie,’ in a sense, is a more expensive home movie with a universal message: Don’t limit yourself.”

Set in the late 1970s and filmed in the Shues’ native New Jersey, “Gracie” is the story of a 15-year-old girl who loses her protective older brother in a car accident. Vowing to take his place, she fights her way onto the boys’ varsity soccer team, overcoming long odds.

The film draws from the Shues’ real-life experiences.

First, from ages 9 to 13, Elisabeth was the only girl on a boys’ soccer team, after which she switched to gymnastics (she later played soccer again on the Harvard junior varsity team).

But it also stemmed from a family tragedy, with the oldest Shue son, Will, dying at age 26 after falling from a broken rope swing (Elisabeth and Andrew were 24 and 21, respectively, at the time).

The origin of “Gracie” lies with Andrew, who starred as Billy Campbell on “Melrose Place” for six years before leaving acting. The father of three also played professional soccer and became a social activist (creating the youth-empowering So Something Foundation) and entrepreneur (starting the social network ClubMom, which has more than 3 million members).

Andrew had been kicking around the idea that would become “Gracie” for about a decade: “I wanted to write an underdog story to honor Will that featured our family game, soccer.”

Soccer and the Shues were intertwined as the children grew up. Father Jim was captain of the 1957 Harvard team. In addition to Elisabeth’s soccer history, Will captained the Columbia High School team and scored the winning goal in the 1978 N.J. State Championship. John went on to become a Regional All-American while at Harvard. Andrew played at Dartmouth and then professionally in Africa and with the Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy. (All the children wore their dad’s No. 7 on their jerseys.)

Andrew’s original idea focused on a boy named Will, but when he approached Guggenheim, it evolved more into something resembling Elisabeth’s story.

“It became more of a family story when Davis got involved,” recalled Andrew in a phone interview from his New Jersey office. “It became about a girl trying to measure up to her brothers and earn her father’s love.”

Elisabeth, the Academy Award-nominated star of “Leaving Las Vegas,” was a bit ambivalent about the idea.

“It’s always hard just to make a movie at all,” she recalled from her California home. “The idea was so personal, so sacred to us. I was worried that it wouldn’t come out the way we wanted it to.”

When her husband suggested that the script more closely follow Elisabeth’s own story, she was reluctant.

“That definitely made it harder for me,” said the mother of three. “I’m so private in reality, really shy. It felt really uncomfortable having your story told in a public way.

“But art is a place where people share and it can create communities,” she added. “At the screenings I’ve been to, the way girls have responded to it, I’ve been amazed and happy about it.”

Jim also looked at the greater good: “The public impact about overcoming adversity overshadows concerns over privacy. Because so much of it is real, there’s a sharing, because people can identify from their own families.”

Elisabeth, who plays mother Lindsey Bowen in “Gracie,” set aside her qualms because of her faith in her husband’s abilities.

“The linchpin was that Davis would direct it,” she said. “I know how talented he is and how he loves my family. I thought it would come out in a way we could all be proud of.” To maintain creative control, Andrew and John worked to raise the $10 million budget for the project.

“We didn’t want it done in a way that might cheapen the emotional truth of the story,” said Andrew, who plays a history teacher and soccer coach in the movie.

Elisabeth praised those efforts: “I’m grateful to Andrew for being the person who made the project happen, and raised the money that gave us the independence.”

Another hurdle was finding the right actress to play Gracie Bowen. More than 2,000 actresses were considered, with Carly Schroeder (best known for a recurring role on the Disney Channel series “Lizzie McGuire”) winning out. She ended up training with Dan Calichman, former player and captain of the Galaxy, for 12 weeks to sharpen her conditioning and soccer skills.

“Carly was very athletic and was willing to spend months training for the part,” Andrew said. “She had the charisma, the strength, the sensitivity and the likability that this character needed.”

Elisabeth resisted the temptation to offer advice to Schroeder.

“I was so sure that she was the right actress, and was grateful she existed in the world,” she said. “She had to be 15, but have a depth of humanity, of experience, and a will of steel. I wanted her to feel free to express herself, to bring out the qualities that were her.”

Elisabeth also had to adjust to working professionally with her husband for the first time.

“It is difficult to mix those roles,” she explained. “When you’re married, you speak your mind. But you need to be able to take direction on the set. We set some ground rules so I was aware of the difficulties. Overall, it went better than we thought it would.”

“Gracie” reached theaters June 1, the little film that could facing off against the summer blockbusters. (Earning $1.35 million, it reached seventh place at the box office in its opening weekend.)

Andrew is OK with that.

“It’s a universal story about an underdog, so I don’t mind playing that role,” he said. “It’s counterprogramming, something more meaningful in a summer full of sequels.”

Jim, who has now been to “Gracie” four times, reflected, “It’s a bit overwhelming. So much of the events and dialogue are based on real experiences. When that’s compressed into 90 minutes, it results in a powerful emotional pull.”

While uncertain about the tenure of “Gracie” at the box office, Andrew said the film has fulfilled its primary goal: “To teach the lesson that our brother had taught us by example – that connection to those closest to you will carry you through anything.”