Grace is Gone is the story of Stanley Philips (John Cusack), the husband of a servicewoman who is killed in Iraq. Trying to find a way to tell his two young daughters that their mother has died, he decides to take them on a trip to an amusement park to give them one more happy memory before their lives change forever.
Written and directed by James C. Strouse (Lonesome Jim), Grace is Gone was the hot story at last year's Sundance Film Festival, for which reason I feel like I may have had impossibly high expectations for it. Don't get me wrong--it was good. Usually just appealing in and of himself, Cusack really steps into the character of the uptight, conservative, grief-stricken Stanley and the little girls who play his daughters are amazing--especially the older daughter, Shelan O'Keefe. But there were times when it felt almost too indie to me--bad lighting, things happening without enough emotional build, and the fact that the mechanics of their road trip (clothes changes, pit stops, seatbelts) were able to crawl into my consciousness. Somehow, I guess, as odd as this is to say, I expected it to be a bit sadder. But it's still a noteworthy effort.
ReelzChannel Rating: 