In theaters

GRACIE, directed by Davis Guggenheim, written by Lisa Marie Petersen and Karen Janszen, 94 minutes, rated PG-13.

The new soccer movie, “Gracie,” is a personal tale about one teenage girl’s struggle to come into her own in the wake of her brother’s death. That her dysfunctional family also is sorting out its emotions makes for a story in which grieving is the undercurrent, with the film’s main character, Gracie Bowen (Carly Schroeder), proving the unwitting vehicle that sees them through.

The film comes from Davis Guggenheim, the Academy Award-winning director of the global-warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” and what he creates is something of a polished, fictionalized home movie.

“Gracie” is, after all, a family affair. Guggenheim conceived the story and co-produced it with his brother-in-law Andrew Shue. Together, with Andrew featured in a small role, they based their story on the formidable early years of Andrew’s sister and Guggenheim’s wife, Elisabeth Shue (“Leaving Las Vegas”), who as a young girl in New Jersey was the only female student to play in the then male-dominated sport.

For Guggenheim and the Shues, the idea was to create a movie that honored Andrew and Elisabeth’s brother Will, who died in 1988 in a tragic accident, as well as the family’s love for soccer, which was fueled by their father, Jim, who captained the Harvard College team in 1958 and who now resides in Hampden.

What they have crafted is a solid, well-acted movie that rides the rails of formula, but which isn’t afraid to veer off them in key moments that keep the movie appealingly off-center.

Set in 1978, the film follows Gracie’s rapidly dissolving relationship with her mother (Shue) and father (Dermot Mulroney) after her brother (Jesse Lee Soffer), a local star soccer player, dies in a car accident.

When Gracie decides she has what it takes to join the boys team herself (with the help of Title IX), she endures the very discrimination that policy is there to avoid – from her classmates to her younger brothers and especially her father, a former soccer player who scoffs at her decision to play in ways that push Gracie toward sexual recklessness and then, once he supports her, toward athletic success.

That none of it comes easy is one reason the film resonates. Further lifting it is that Guggenheim doesn’t shy away from the notion that some believe if a female athlete takes on a sport associated with males, then her sexuality must be put into question. Gracie feels that pressure, but her unwavering focus is such that it consumes at least part of the sting.

It’s Schroeder’s winning performance, though, that makes the film. Her brooding, convincing turn helps to quash the typical sports movie cliches the script courts. She proves a highlight in a story that will speak volumes to those who have been marked by discrimination, regardless of their age or gender, and who have overcome it to excel.

Grade: B

On DVD

HANNIBAL RISING, directed by Peter Webber, written by Thomas Harris from his novel, 121 minutes, rated R.

The latest Hannibal Lecter movie, “Hannibal Rising,” is an origins movie that follows the serial killer’s early years. As you might expect, those years didn’t involve much time in a sandbox, unless, of course, Hannibal’s spade was used as an instrument of death.

Working from novelist Thomas Harris’ script (his first in the franchise), director Peter Webber designs a movie concerned with explaining the reasons behind Hannibal’s madness, thus stripping the character of mystery while embracing its share of sympathy. Everybody involved with the movie seems turned on about what turned Lecter into the deadly little charmer he became. What created such a beast? The absence of fava beans in his Pablum? Hardly. In this case, it was that old Hollywood standby, the Nazis.

The film opens in Lithuania toward the end of World War II. It’s 1944 and at Lecter Castle – yes, Lecter Castle – the privileged Lecter clan, including Hannibal (Aaron Thomas) and his very young sister Mischa (Helena Lia Tachovska) are taken to a safe house in the country when a battle ensues, leaving their parents among the dead.

Left to fend for themselves, the siblings make the best of it until into their lives comes a scrappy group of starving war miscreants who shackle them, abuse them and then, consumed by hunger, see in plump Mischa something of a feast. They decide to eat the poor thing, which turns Lecter’s mind to the dark side and sets the movie up for its bloody plot of revenge.

Fast-forward eight years. Now played by Gaspart Ulliel, Lecter flees a Soviet orphanage for France, where his wealthy Aunt Murasaki resides. As played by the Chinese actress Gong Li, Murasaki is a hot-looking widow whose beauty and kindness attract Hannibal in ways that are so endearing, he beheads a butcher who bullies her at the market.

A conflicted Murasaki finds the act almost touching. On the flip side, she’s also concerned, particularly since Hannibal’s deadly dalliances are attracting the attention of Inspector Popil (Dominic West), who has to be one of the dumbest detectives in Paris. As often as Hannibal kills, sometimes right under Popil’s nose, the inspector can’t find the evidence to put him away. Conveniently, this allows the movie its streak of violence: Hannibal stalks those who ate his sister, brings them down and feasts on their cheeks.

Its lack of logic aside, the movie does look good, it isn’t dull, and moments are cheap fun. That said, there’s something depressing in the fact that this offspring of a modern-day classic, “Silence of the Lambs,” has become as cheap as Clarice’s shoes. If there is a next time – and there likely will be, perhaps in a movie featuring Lecter in childhood – here’s hoping that Harris has the good sense to show some restraint and not to allow this particular infant to nurse.

Grade: C

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays and Fridays in Lifestyle, and weekends in Television as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.