"Grace is Gone" is a slow, quiet but engaging family drama. John Cusack stars as Stanley Philipps, who learns early in the film that his soldier wife has been killed in Iraq, leaving him with two daughters. The movie follows the story of his immediate reaction and how difficult it is to tell his daughters. Since his initial reaction is to take the girls on a surprise road trip to "Enchanted Gardens", the film is sort of the flip-side of "National Lampoon's Vacation". Of course, with the subject matter here, this is far from a comedy. John Cusack does a great job portraying all of the emotions that his character is going through as he struggles with the realization that he is now a single father and has no idea how to tell his girls what happened. The girls are very good, also, and their interaction is very realistic. Shelan O'Keefe does a very nice job as the older daughter who knows something is not quite right and is trying to figure out what is going on. From personal experience, I can say that the initial grieving process, while trying to hold it together for the kids, is very realistically portrayed. Knowing Cusack's political leanings, I feared this would be a lecture piece on how wrong the war in Iraq is, but it is far from that. Although one character does raise the issues, he is quickly silenced, letting us know that it is not what this movie is about. Cusack's performance alone makes this worth seeing, but the movie itself was also very good and hit very close to home for me.Grade: B-
Trailer:
1 comment:
There is a part of the trailer
"john cusak is brilliant" could that be part of every one of his movies?
think he is one of the most underated actors out there. I have to see this.
Steve
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