Grace Is Gone (2007)

Though 2007 saw a flood of Iraq-related films, GRACE IS GONE takes a different approach from many of the others. Unlike REDACTED and LIONS FOR LAMBS, this directorial debut from screenwriter James C. Strouse (LONESOME JIM) doesn't focus on the conflict itself. Instead, the drama looks at how the death of a female soldier affects her family at home. John Cusack (1408) is Stanley Phillips, a husband and father who waits while his wife Grace is off serving in Iraq. When he learns of her death, he can't bear to tell his two daughters the news. To postpone the inevitable, the normally staid father proposes a spontaneo...
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us road trip to his girls, and the three set off for the fun of an amusement park called Enchanted Gardens.

GRACE IS GONE picked up a pair of awards at Sundance: the Audience Award and Best Screenplay. It's a deeply affecting drama that never resorts to manipulation in achieving its aims. Instead, it relies on the strong script from Strouse, as well as a trio of fantastic performances. As Stanley and Grace's young daughters, Gracie Bednarczyk and Shélan O'Keefe make memorable film debuts. Their relationships with both each other and their cinematic father feel completely genuine. As for Cusack, he trades in the swagger of Lloyd Dobler and Rob Gordon for Stanley Phillips's shuffle. The role is a complete departure for the veteran actor, and the change is a welcome one that should win him both critical praise and awards. The film's tone is sweet and sad, though never overwhelmingly so, and it's helped by excellent cinematography from Jean-Louis Bompoint and a quietly moving score from Clint Eastwood.
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The contemplative, understated tearjerker Grace Is Gone dramatizes the quiet crisis that befalls Stanley (John Cusack), a young Midwestern husband of a female marine stationed in Iraq, and a father of two girls. Suddenly and unexpectedly widowed when his wife, Grace, is killed on the battlefield, Stanley cannot bring himself to share the devastating news with his two young daughters. In lieu of speaking to them immediately about their mother's death, Stanley internalizes his devastation and takes the girls on a road trip while he attempts to sort through a myriad of conflicted and tumultuous internal feelings abo...
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ut the war itself and contemplates how to break the shattering news. Inevitably, the road trip will end with Grace's funeral. This film represents the brainchild of producer/star Cusack and writer/director James C. Strouse. It began with Cusack's fury about the Bush administration's policy banning footage of caskets returning from the Iraq and Afghani wars, and his desire to see those events played out onscreen, in the lives of American citizens.
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Stanley Phillips (John Cusack) had zijn hele leven uitgestippeld. Hij zou zijn land dienen en was voorbestemd voor een militaire carrière. Die droom kwam abrupt tot een einde wanneer bleek dat zijn ogen niet goed genoeg waren. Nu staat hij achter de toonbank in een buurtwinkel, terwijl zijn vrouw Grace als sergeant vecht in Irak. Tijdens haar afwezigheid is Stanley belast met de opvoeding van hun twee dochters, de 8- jarige Dawn en de 12- jarige Heidi. Hij heeft het echter moeilijk om een affectieve relatie met hen op te bouwen en de meisjes missen hun moeder verschrikkelijk. Plots slaat het...
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noodlot toe: Grace komt om bij een aanslag. Stanley besluit voorlopig niets tegen de meisjes te zeggen en beslist spontaan om op een 'road trip' te vertrekken.
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