John Cusack plays Stanley Phillips, an employee at Home Store whose soldier wife (the Grace of the title) was killed during the Iraq War. Naturally, he's devastated, but at the same time, he's unable to tell their two daughters (Shelan O'Keefe and Gracie Bednarczyk) what happened. Instead, he takes them on a road trip (with the theme park Enchanted Gardens the intended destination), determined to inject some fun and spontaneity into their lives.
Debuting director James C. Strouse never tries to truly politicize his story, which is appreciable. He limits this element to one conversation between Stanley and his slovenly brother John (Alessandro Nivola). Really, "Grace is Gone" is much more about love, and loss, and how people cope, or don't cope, with tragedy in their lives. Ultimately, it does work because it does have compassion for its characters. One could argue that Stanley is behaving irrationally, but he does acknowledge, in his own way, that he doesn't really know what he's doing. Both the journey and the destination in this tale carry equal weight; we know Stanley is going to *have* to tell the girls the truth at some point, so we watch and wait for him to reach that point of readiness.
Cusack does a very fine job here, in one of his best performances. O'Keefe and Bednarczyk are endearing and convincing, managing to avoid being overly cutesy, for the most part. Nivola is fine in his brief time on screen. Marisa Tomei and Mary Kay Place have roles so brief that one *really* has to pay attention in order to catch them at all.
Strouse, the writer of the film, stepped up to the plate after original director Rob Reiner left the project. His storytelling is pretty succinct; "Grace is Gone" manages to wrap up in a trim 86 minutes. The lovely music score is courtesy of Clint Eastwood, his first credit in this capacity where he didn't also direct the picture in question.
All in all, this is a good picture that wins emotional reactions from the audience fairly honestly; it rarely gets overly sentimental or manipulative.
Seven out of 10.
Debuting director James C. Strouse never tries to truly politicize his story, which is appreciable. He limits this element to one conversation between Stanley and his slovenly brother John (Alessandro Nivola). Really, "Grace is Gone" is much more about love, and loss, and how people cope, or don't cope, with tragedy in their lives. Ultimately, it does work because it does have compassion for its characters. One could argue that Stanley is behaving irrationally, but he does acknowledge, in his own way, that he doesn't really know what he's doing. Both the journey and the destination in this tale carry equal weight; we know Stanley is going to *have* to tell the girls the truth at some point, so we watch and wait for him to reach that point of readiness.
Cusack does a very fine job here, in one of his best performances. O'Keefe and Bednarczyk are endearing and convincing, managing to avoid being overly cutesy, for the most part. Nivola is fine in his brief time on screen. Marisa Tomei and Mary Kay Place have roles so brief that one *really* has to pay attention in order to catch them at all.
Strouse, the writer of the film, stepped up to the plate after original director Rob Reiner left the project. His storytelling is pretty succinct; "Grace is Gone" manages to wrap up in a trim 86 minutes. The lovely music score is courtesy of Clint Eastwood, his first credit in this capacity where he didn't also direct the picture in question.
All in all, this is a good picture that wins emotional reactions from the audience fairly honestly; it rarely gets overly sentimental or manipulative.
Seven out of 10.