***SPOILERS*** Deeply moving film about coping with a tragic death and how it effects the person who's trying to keep it from his two young daughters knowing quite well he can't keep it from them forever. It's when local Home Depot manager Stan Phillips, John Cusack,got the news that his wife Grace, Dana Lynne Gihooley, was killed in action in Iraq that his entire world turned upside down. With him now having to deal with Grace never coming home he has to find a way to tell his and Garce's two young daughters Heidi & Dawn, Shelan O'Keefe & Gracie Bednarezyk, the terrible news about their mom's passing. Not quite knowing what to do Stan decides to take the two girls on a trip from their home in suburban Minnesota to Florida to where they alway wanted to visit the state's "Enchanted Gardens".
On his trip south Stan stops off at his grandma's place only to find his homeless and unemployed good for nothing brother John, Alessandro Nivola, sleeping there. It's during a heated conversation with John,with both Heidi & Dawn not present, Stan tells him that his wife Grace was killed in Iraq. John a lifelong pacifist who, like what turned out to be the majority of Americans. was totally against the war changed his opinion about it. In him knowing that Stan can't accept that his wife Grace died for a not a noble and righteous cause. Not as Stan believes in order for Grace to protect her country and family from a foreign invader.
It's later that Heidi starts to put the pieces together in realizing her dad's very strange behavior. Why is he acting so out of character and what's with this calling her mom and Stan's wife Grace at home in Minnesota and leaving long and & rambling massages while she's supposed to be some 8,000 miles away in far off Iarq! Has her dad suddenly gone off his rocker or is he hiding something from both her and her kid sister Dawn?
****SPOILERS*** In the end after finally getting to visit Florida's "Enchanted Gardens" Stan decides that he has to tell his girls the truth that he's been keeping from them all this time. And he does it in a very touching way siting by the shore with no audio but music showing how both Heidi, who may have already known, and Dawn reacting to he news. It was evadable for Stan to come clean and tell his daughters the truth in what happened to their mom but as it turned out they took it a lot better then he did. But they did get a chance to visit the "Enchanted Gardens" that in some way took most of the sting out of it!
On his trip south Stan stops off at his grandma's place only to find his homeless and unemployed good for nothing brother John, Alessandro Nivola, sleeping there. It's during a heated conversation with John,with both Heidi & Dawn not present, Stan tells him that his wife Grace was killed in Iraq. John a lifelong pacifist who, like what turned out to be the majority of Americans. was totally against the war changed his opinion about it. In him knowing that Stan can't accept that his wife Grace died for a not a noble and righteous cause. Not as Stan believes in order for Grace to protect her country and family from a foreign invader.
It's later that Heidi starts to put the pieces together in realizing her dad's very strange behavior. Why is he acting so out of character and what's with this calling her mom and Stan's wife Grace at home in Minnesota and leaving long and & rambling massages while she's supposed to be some 8,000 miles away in far off Iarq! Has her dad suddenly gone off his rocker or is he hiding something from both her and her kid sister Dawn?
****SPOILERS*** In the end after finally getting to visit Florida's "Enchanted Gardens" Stan decides that he has to tell his girls the truth that he's been keeping from them all this time. And he does it in a very touching way siting by the shore with no audio but music showing how both Heidi, who may have already known, and Dawn reacting to he news. It was evadable for Stan to come clean and tell his daughters the truth in what happened to their mom but as it turned out they took it a lot better then he did. But they did get a chance to visit the "Enchanted Gardens" that in some way took most of the sting out of it!