The new film Grace is Gone, a story of a husband who can’t bring himself to tell his daughters their mother has died serving in Iraq, isn’t really about Iraq, per se. Instead, the ad campaign should play up how the film is more about dealing with losing a loved one than the war – especially since Rendition belly-flopped in theaters, the term “topical” has become equivalent to “box-office poison.”
A string of films related to Iraq and the Middle East has been released this fall, and almost all have been unsuccessful. When speaking about the wave of these films in an interview with The Diamondback, Grace is Gone writer/director James Strouse (Lonesome Jim) said, “I felt the sort of appetite for this sort of thing was not going to match the number of films.”
In Strouse’s addition to the genre, John Cusack (currently not doing so hot in theaters with Martian Child) plays Stanley Phillips, a reserved employee of a Home Depot-like store. Stanley has two daughters, the similarly withdrawn Heidi (Shélan O’Keefe) and the carefree Dawn (Gracie Bednarczyk). Their family dynamic drastically changes, however, when Stanley learns his army wife has been killed in Iraq. He has such a hard time dealing with the news that he can’t even find a way to tell his daughters.
Grace is a patient, mature movie about loss, as Strouse focuses most on the three remaining members of the Phillips family. Strouse’s attempts to put their situation into a larger world perspective are few and far between, and this is a good thing – the Iraq connection is definitely not the main focus. “People don’t need to know exactly what I think of policy,” Strouse said.
Given Strouse’s relative newness to film (Lonesome Jim is his only previous credit), it was probably essential to get a name like Cusack in order to get this film made – “The money was contingent on finding a big enough … actor to make the investors sort of relieved,” Strouse said.
But Cusack, known more for playing motor-mouth, rambling characters, is clearly trying something different here; unfortunately, the audience can see Cusack acting, and everything from his awkward walk to his rigid facial expressions feels forced. Cusack’s performance feels so artificially constructed that his character doesn’t register as natural.
More believable performances are given by the two newcomers playing Stanley’s daughters. Heidi comes off like a miniature version of Stanley, but she has a natural stillness completely unlike the self-conscious restriction Cusack employs. The other daughter, Dawn, feels so real that you almost don’t notice she’s an actress. Bednarczyk bops around energetically, play-fighting with her sister and rolling around the room. She may be playing herself, but it is refreshing to see a little kid not self-conscious at all on screen.
Strouse’s script is impressive for the angle it takes with the results of Stanley’s wife’s death. In a strange way, her death forces Stanley to live a little, as he is so overcome by grief that he can’t help but let out some steam. He suddenly pulls off the road and does donuts in a field; he spontaneously decides to drive the kids to an amusement park; he is forced to confront his estranged brother (Alessandro Nivola, The Darwin Awards).
“My favorite types of movies … are the ones that sort of sneak up on you,” Strouse said. “You’re laughing just as much as you’re sort of feeling emotional or sad.”
To an extent, Grace is Gone lives up to Strouse’s expectations. The film is fine but flawed – the plot becomes repetitive, the film has little new light to shed on Iraq and Cusack’s overdone acting is distracting. Although the film isn’t exploitative, it could have definitely been better.
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RATING: 3 STARS OUT OF 5
