Grace is Gone – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

graceisgone
Available at Amazon.com

Of all the commercially unsuccessful movies to come out about our interminable conflict in Iraq, this is . . . one of them.

Okay, I kid, I kid.

What makes Grace is Gone different from your typical modern war picture is that it doesn’t really show the war. This movie is about the effects a war has on the families of the troops fighting it. It’s not about battle sequences or the questionable politics/ethics of our current quagmire; Grace is Gone is ultimately a film about people.

These things are good things.

John (kick-boxing is the sport of the future) Cusack gets himself good and ugly in order to play Stanley Philipps. He’s a former military man trying to raise his two daughters solo while his wife is stationed in Iraq. The youngest daughter has a watch alarm synchronized with her mother’s in order that each can think about the other simultaneously. The oldest, despite dad’s disapproval, keeps tabs on mom by watching that horrifying news footage to which we’ve all become accustomed.

Dad Stanley gets one of those dreaded visits from two uniformed soldiers, informing him that his wife, Grace, is in fact gone. Rather than tell the girls straight away that their mother has been killed, Stanley picks them up from school and takes them on a spontaneous road-trip to a Disneyworld simulacrum.

The family makes a few stops along the way: They accidentally visit the girls’ shiftless liberal uncle, Dad teaches his under-aged daughter to smoke cigarettes, and they buy the clothes that they never had the chance to pack. But, basically, Stanley’s denial is projected onto the audience, and we’re all just sitting around and waiting for that tear-jerking revelation to the children.

The main problem here is that this is a good idea for an hour long TV show, but there isn’t nearly enough plot to fill the run time of a feature film. Even at 85 minutes, the film feels twice as long as it needs to be.

The second biggest problem is that of the last reel reveal, itself. As soon as the important and emotional parts of that conversation start, the dialogue is muted in favor of the score. Perhaps this device is to afford the characters some privacy, but it strikes me as “being too lazy to script the difficult lines.” The audience has been waiting for this scene since the first act of the film, and they aren’t even allowed to hear it?

I’m calling shenanigans.

At any rate, this is the least offensive and least political war movie I’ve seen in a long time. Though we see some perfunctory and tired arguments about the conflict, the story wouldn’t change much were Grace to die in the Grenada. Really, the story wouldn’t change much if Grace was a stewardess that died in a plane crash.

James C. Strouse handles himself pretty well for a first time director. Clint Eastwood, one of the ten coolest guys living, provides the austere score. Cusack is good in this non-Cusack role, as are the unknowns playing his kids.

Ultimately, the film is respectful and well-crafted, but lacks a central thesis. Read as: it doesn’t suck, but it is mostly pointless.


We get three special features which don’t quite add up to 20 minutes worth of stuff.

The first is a slapped together behind-the-scenes look. The second is a news-magazine style report on a family going through the same problem as the one in the film. The third is a super short introduction to TAPs, the Tragedy Assistance Program.


Grace is Gone is the sort of film your mom would recommend you; nothing sexy happens, the character don’t swear much, there are some cute kids, and she cries at the end.

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The Weinstein Company presents Grace is Gone. Directed by John C. Strouse. Starring John Cusack. Written by John C. Strouse. Running time: 85 minutes. Rated PG-13. Released on DVD: May 27, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.