AllMovie

A young woman struggles to reconcile her dreams, her ambitions and her family in this coming-of-age drama. Jordan (Gina Philips) is a teenager from Miami whose father is Hispanic and whose mother is Jewish; feeling the tug of both cultures, Jordan has rarely felt comfortable anywhere but at the podium during a debate. Jordan's skills as a high school debater are so strong that she's offered a scholarship to study at Harvard and debate on the team led by Coach Amal (Sean Astin). Jordan accepts, but after a heated competition, Jordan meets socially with a member of an opposing team and is assaulted. Disillusioned, Jordan quits debate and tries to put her life back in order. Over the next two years, she's torn between her feelings for two guys -- Chris (Brian Greenberg), who is sweet but insincere, and Elias (Adam Rodriguez), who spends too much time trying to be cool to allow her to realize how much he really cares for her. Eventually, Jordan comes to terms with ambitions and rejoins the debate team, but when she takes the podium for one of the most important contests of her life, she discovers the leader of the opposing team is the man who attacked her years before. Also starring Joaquim de Almeida, Shirley Knight, Azura Skye and Eve Gordon, Thanks To Gravity was the first feature film from writer and director Jessica Kavana.