Review: Grace is Gone

John Cusack plays a loving father of two girls (Shelan O’Keefe and Gracie Bednarczyk), who finds out the tragic news that his soldier wife has died whilst fighting in Iraq. Cusack, a proud Republican and pro-troops guy is left shattered and unable to work out how to tell his children, let alone how to process it himself. So instead, he chucks them in the car and tells them they’re going on a vacation to Florida for a bit, and mum’s not coming along. He’s trying to delay the inevitable, of course...but for his kids, or himself? A perfectly cast Alessandro Nivola plays Cusack’s borderline militant, left-wing brother, whom the trio bump into when dropping in on the grandparents.

 

The always likeable John Cusack isn’t enough to make this 2007 drama from writer-director James C. Strouse (whose only other film is an imaginatively titled sports film called “The Winning Season”) soar like you think it should. Cusack’s character keeps his emotions in check for most of the film, and that creates somewhat of a distance or disconnect where there really shouldn’t be. At first, the idea that this guy clearly has no idea how to deal with this situation seems quite plausible, and don’t get me wrong, Cusack is very, very strong in the role as it goes along. But after a while, one realises just how slight this all is (It’s interesting to see Cusack play a Republican, though), and it strangely never quite pulls you in, emotionally. It’s only through Cusack’s strong performance that I even made it as far as I did before getting impatient, finally.

 

The other problem is his children. The youngest is excruciatingly played by Gracie Bednarczyk, an insufferably obnoxious young actress, who is an unbearable irritant throughout. I genuinely hated her. Shelan O’Keefe is better as the older sister, but her character is a complete moron. She’s old enough to ‘get it’, suspects something is wrong almost right away, eventually finds out that ‘something’...and yet when the big reveal comes she acts like she doesn’t know. WHAT?

 

Such a shame that this film is overall too restrained and thinly plotted, because the central idea should’ve been incredibly moving. I get what Strouse was attempting here, but by leaving the reveal until the very end, you’re depriving us of the opportunity to become truly emotionally invested. It’s not the best way to have told this story, I don’t think, and it also needed a bit more meat on its bones, plot-wise.

 

Oh, and if you’re looking for Marisa Tomei and Mary Kay Place, you need to get your binoculars out. They have walk-ons, at a distance. I have no idea why either, folks. Good intentions are nearly- but ultimately not- enough here, I’m afraid.

 

Rating: C+