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Grace Is Gone | 
| Director: James C. Strouse
Actors: John Cusack, Alessandro Nivola, Gracie Bednarczyk, Shelan O'keefe
Studio: Weinstein Company
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $19.99
You Save: $4.96 (20%)
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Rating:  10 reviews
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 84 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 81172
UPC: 796019811729
EAN: 0796019811729
ASIN: B0013D8LBS
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: May 27, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Unlike previous Iraq War films, the poignant directorial debut from writer James C. Strouse (Lonesome Jim) uses the conflict as starting point rather than subject. Early in the proceedings, Stanley (John Cusack) finds out his wife has been killed in the line of duty. The bespectacled disciplinarian decides not to tell his daughters right away. In his younger days, Stanley tried to serve his country, but poor eyesight dashed that dream, and now he's a superstore manager. The sort of middle-American conservative rarely seen at the art house, Stanley believes in his president. That doesn't alleviate his pain. Putting on a brave face, he asks his oblivious girls for their greatest wish. Eight-year-old Dawn (Gracie Bednarczyk) exclaims, "Enchanted Gardens!" With that, they hop in their SUV and drive from Minnesota to the Florida theme park. Twelve-year-old Heidi (Shelan O'Keefe) knows something is wrong--her dad isn't the spontaneous type--but she doesn't know what it is. En route, they visit Stanley's brother, John (Alessandro Nivola), who offers some insight into their bottled-up father. By the end of the trip, Stanley figures out how to break the news, in the process becoming a real parent. After winning the Audience Award at Sundance, Clint Eastwood, Cusack's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil director, gave the soundtrack a jazz-oriented overhaul. In tone, it's almost too refined for the blue-collar world Strouse depicts, but never distracting. More importantly, Grace Is Gone features Cusack's finest performance to date. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Description
In one of his most acclaimed performances, John Cusack makes an astonishing transformation as Stanley Philips, a sad, disconnected man unable to tell his young daughters their mother, a soldier, has died in Iraq. Instead, he takes the girls on a road trip, where their innocent charm helps him rediscover a healing joy he thought he'd lost forever.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 "Over There" is definitely felt "Over Here" July 6, 2008
B. Merritt (WWW.FILMREVIEWSTEW.COM, Pacific Grove, California United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Looking for a good tear-jerker? You could hardly find one better than GRACE IS GONE. Topical. Family oriented. It is something of a surprising role for John Cusack who started his career with low-brow comedies (Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer). But this independent gem shows that Cusack has the wherewithal to spot a solid, dramatic part and run with it. Although Cusack has done some off-and-on stand-up work, things like The Ice Harvest and Pushing Tin were a bit thin on character. But not so here.
And, even more surprising, the film brings two unknowns to play alongside Cusack. The two are also very young girls who show that Dakota Fanning (Charlotte's Web) isn't the only young gal who can act her heart out. Shelan O'Keefe stars as Heidi Phillips, Stanley Phillips' (Cusack's) eldest daughter and does so with astonishing ...um ...grace. Trying to find her way into adolescence while watching her father implode is quite nicely portrayed. Her first attempts at smoking and her nighttime wanderings are something many parents will be able to identify with.
Stanley's younger daughter Dawn is played by newcomer Gracie Bednarczyk, and her portions where she's jousting with her older sister are spot on. Not understanding what's happening to their family is significant in that someone of her age truly wouldn't know. But the suspicions of her elder sister set her on edge ...just a tad.
Grace is Gone is a very good war film. And by war I mean a film that focuses on its impact on the home-front. When Stanley (Cusack) learns of his wife's death in Iraq, it takes some mental juggling for him to come to terms with what that means for him and his two young daughters. This is the crux of the story. When Stanley can't release the information to his kids, he hides it by taking them to a fun theme park many miles away. It seems he wants his kids to have fun before breaking the worst news of their lives to them ...and, in a sense, re-breaking it to himself. Stanley loses sight of what he needs to do, and even becomes a bit delusional (he calls his own home to tell his dead-wife that he and the kids are okay, etc.).
The gut-wrenching scene when Stanley MUST tell the kids what happened to their mother is one of the hardest things any parent will ever have to watch. The musical score comes up over the voice of Stanley and we don't get to hear everything he says, which we don't need to; we can see it on the childrens' faces. A truly powerful moment that will linger with you for many days, if not weeks.
It is noteworthy to mention how topical this film is since the war in Iraq seems far from over. Men and women continue to die "over there" and when that might end is anyone's guess. But one thing is for certain, the traumas felt "over there" definitely ripple "over to here". And that's something that this film shows us exceptionally well.
Heart rending & intelligent June 15, 2008
M. Elizabeth Wilson (Stone Mountain, GA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's sad that so many good films about the stupidity of Bush II's Iraq War has not succeeded at the box office, and in a way, this applies to "Grace is Gone" -- though this film is about the human beings that war affects -- and it is a VERY affecting film. Cusak continues to impress me as an actor, and the two young actresses who played his daughters are fine performers. Watch this one. Beautifully done.
Collapse of a Paradigm June 14, 2008
nepos (California)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This "sleeper" of a film serves up much more than first appears on the surface. Yes, it does grapple with the grief of a husband and father (played by John Cusack) whose wife, a member of the US Armed Forces, has been killed in Iraq. He does not know how to tell his two young daughters that their mother, Grace, is gone, and decides instead to pluck them out of school and go on a road trip to a Disneyworld type of park. Up to now he has been a detached sort of man, mechanically going to work each day as the manager of a home improvement store, having previously served in the military, until being discharged due to poor eyesite. An unquestioning sense of patriotism seems to have provided much of the underpinning for his life.
It is during this odyssey with his two girls, that the underpinning, tenets, and paradigms, begin to peel away. Cusack does this, using everyday scenes from America as the backdrop. Motel lobbies, big box stores, fast food restaurants,and service station convenience stores take on an eery hollowness, as he and his pre-teen daughter face the questions whether the Iraq war is worth fighting. In the end, on a beach, with both daughters at his side, he gently tells them the truth about Grace's death. However, one comes away feeling that he is now alive for the first time. His love for his girls and wife transcends all the other stuff, the hollowness, the corporate pep talks, the Army support groups, the patriotic patter, the drive-thru answers.
This remarkable film draws back the curtain and reveals a much darker landscape of America. In the end, the only light comes from within the heart.
 "I Regret To Inform You ~ I Did Everything I Wanted To Do" June 8, 2008
Brian E. Erland (Brea, CA - USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Synposis: The '07 release `Grace Is Gone' is an exceedingly sad story of one families loss when Grace, a wife and mother is killed during a military engagement in Iraq. Upon receiving uniformed visitors and hearing those dreaded words, "I regret to inform you..." her husband Stanely (John Cusack) finds himself unable to deal with his own emotions, not to mention those of his two young daughters, twelve year old Heidi (Shelan O'Keefe) and eight year old Dawn (Gracie Bednarcyk).
He decides to take them on a road trip to a place of their choice. Little Gracie wants to go to "Enchanted Garden", an amusement park several days away by car. The journey that ensues becomes a metaphor for the grieving process as Stanley learns to reconnect with his children and find a way to share the bad news. Is he just avoiding the inevitable, or will their time together somehow ease the pain to come teach them to appreciate what they still have, each other?
Critique: John Cusack proves once again that there isn't any role he cannot excel in and the thoughtful, reserved Shelan O'Keefe along with the irrepressible Gracie Bednarcyk are the perfect compliement for this little family unit adrift in a sea of pending grief. This is definitely a mood movie, so if you're not in the mood for a slowly unfolding, somber journey of finding center and re-connect with life this isn't the film for you. However if you've lost a loved one in the military or just in a quiet, reflective space and open to the subject matter `Grace Is Gone' is the film for you.
Quiet, tender little drama about loss June 8, 2008
Allison
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you like quiet, intimate, well-acted dramas, this is the movie for you. John Cusak plays a frumpy, bespectled superstore manager who loses his soldier wife in the Iraq War and can't accept her death. He takes his two young daughters on a road trip to an amusement park, temporarily trying to escape from the horror of reality. Cusak can't bring himself to tell his daughters that their mother is dead, he is so in denial.
What I like about the movie is that it shows what the families of the fallen soldiers of the Iraq conflict go through, their pain and suffering. Whenever a soldier dies, everyone who loved him or her is deeply affected, too.
Cusak gives one of his most subtle and touching performances of his career and has great chemistry with the actresses who play his daughters, especially Shelan O'Keefe. Their relationship felt very real.
Hopefully, Cusak's other Iraq war movie, War, Inc, gets a wider release soon.
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