Grace Is Gone

Jean-Louis Bompoint/ TWC 2007

Review in a Hurry:  The war in Iraq hits home for a father and two little girls, in a quiet little movie that's big on emotion.

The Bigger Picture:  Writer James C. Strouse's big break came last year when Stephen Buscemi directed his sensitive screenplay Lonesome Jim. The precious low-budget flick played like a parody of an obtuse student film, except...it wasn't a parody.

Strouse serves as both scribe and director for his second effort, Grace Is Gone, all the more opportunity to really slop on the arty-farty. It comes as a pleasant relief then to discover that the movie has its heart and soul in the right place, as it follows a schlubby, stoic midwestern man, Stanley Phillips (John Cusack), whose wife is killed in the line of duty in Iraq.

Problem is he doesn't exactly tell his two young daughters, Heidi and Dawn (Shelan O'Keefe and Gracie Bednarczyk, respectively), that their mother is gone forever, instead evading the big moment by spontaneously taking the kids on a long road trip to a Florida amusement park.

The long, flat highways of the heartland leave Stanley no choice but to throw away his stiff disciplinarian ways, to bond with his kids and to seek to understand them better. After all, it's just the three of them now, no bubbly Grace (we hear her vivacious voice on the family answering machine) to buffer the conflicts between father and daughters.

Strouse reveals a deep understanding of how kids think, and the young actresses are preternaturally perceptive. Their gravitas outshines that of many other actresses double their age, and they anchor the movie with a solid emotional center, subtly demonstrating the trauma of war on the homefront.

The 180—a Second Opinion:  Of all people, it's Cusack who comes off as pretentious here. The usually earthy and instinctive Chicago-born actor picks up some strictly NYC Method-y tics, giving Stanley a pigeon-toed walk, serious slouch and a bad mouth-breathing habit. Why would someone who comes off as delightful and fun as Grace settle down with this guy? Played for pathos, Cusack's physicalizations just come off as insincere.