Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

SnoopyStyle Stanley Phillips (John Cusack) is a mild-mannered store manager. His wife Grace is away at war in Iraq. They met in basic training and married before he got thrown out for his eyes. He's informed of her death but he can't bring himself to tell their daughters Heidi and Dawn. He decides to take them out of school on a surprise trip to amusement park Enchanted Gardens. They visit his anti-war slacker brother John Phillips (Alessandro Nivola). The older daughter Heidi starts to suspect something is wrong.Cusack is playing against type as a father. He is literally hunched over after the news. It's an interesting performance and the two girls are great. The older girl is especially good. This road trip movie is a bit too simplistic. There isn't enough going on. It needs a few more outside characters for the three leads to interact with like that smoking boy. It is nevertheless very compelling and the inevitable talk is powerful.

sol ***SPOILERS*** Deeply moving film about coping with a tragic death and how it effects the person who's trying to keep it from his two young daughters knowing quite well he can't keep it from them forever. It's when local Home Depot manager Stan Phillips, John Cusack,got the news that his wife Grace, Dana Lynne Gihooley, was killed in action in Iraq that his entire world turned upside down. With him now having to deal with Grace never coming home he has to find a way to tell his and Garce's two young daughters Heidi & Dawn, Shelan O'Keefe & Gracie Bednarezyk, the terrible news about their mom's passing. Not quite knowing what to do Stan decides to take the two girls on a trip from their home in suburban Minnesota to Florida to where they alway wanted to visit the state's "Enchanted Gardens".On his trip south Stan stops off at his grandma's place only to find his homeless and unemployed good for nothing brother John, Alessandro Nivola, sleeping there. It's during a heated conversation with John,with both Heidi & Dawn not present, Stan tells him that his wife Grace was killed in Iraq. John a lifelong pacifist who, like what turned out to be the majority of Americans. was totally against the war changed his opinion about it. In him knowing that Stan can't accept that his wife Grace died for a not a noble and righteous cause. Not as Stan believes in order for Grace to protect her country and family from a foreign invader.It's later that Heidi starts to put the pieces together in realizing her dad's very strange behavior. Why is he acting so out of character and what's with this calling her mom and Stan's wife Grace at home in Minnesota and leaving long and & rambling massages while she's supposed to be some 8,000 miles away in far off Iarq! Has her dad suddenly gone off his rocker or is he hiding something from both her and her kid sister Dawn? ****SPOILERS*** In the end after finally getting to visit Florida's "Enchanted Gardens" Stan decides that he has to tell his girls the truth that he's been keeping from them all this time. And he does it in a very touching way siting by the shore with no audio but music showing how both Heidi, who may have already known, and Dawn reacting to he news. It was evadable for Stan to come clean and tell his daughters the truth in what happened to their mom but as it turned out they took it a lot better then he did. But they did get a chance to visit the "Enchanted Gardens" that in some way took most of the sting out of it!

rddj05 I had assumed that the reason Grace Is Gone had done so poorly at the box office was because people did not want to see a film with a depressing premise in the middle of a massive recession, and a still-raging war. Now, after viewing, I realize that the low turnout was probably more due to the fact that it's simply not be a very good film. The movie starts out strong, but it's all downhill after the first 10 minutes. It moves at a glacial pace, the plot does not appear to be well thought out, the dialogue is pedestrian, the actions of the main character strain credibility, and there is not one remotely surprising moment in the entire film. Not to mention that it is shot in quite the banal fashion, with sloppy, clichéd camera setups, which don't do much for the visuals in the film. I'll take blatant sentimentality, (don't worry, there's some of that too), over complete boredom any day. I was surely not looking for car chases or gunfights, but simply something to hold my attention, which can be done with the simplest of stories. The director simply seems to lack experience or confidence in trying to tell the story in any other way than he imagined it when writing the script. And from script to screen is where an good idea turns into a great film.The script itself seems without focus and a bit amateur; the type that will occasionally win screen writing competitions, but will almost never make it to the big screen. I can only imagine that the main reason the film was even made was because it piqued the interest of its star, John Cusack. However, a great role (and Cusack is indeed quite good here), does not make up for a film that goes nowhere. There are whole scenes that could've been cut in half, but instead the actions, or lack thereof, of the characters are lingered on with a preciousness that those moments do not deserve. We all know that kids annoy each other and their parents. We don't need 20 shots of this. I can only imagine the disappointment of a couple, who paid for a babysitter and a night out at the movies, and was treated to the insipid, maudlin environment they could've seen by simply staying at home with their own kids. It's a subject matter that had a lot of potential and could've been quite the good film if handled more deftly.

Gordon-11 This film is about a father who has got no courage to tell his two daughters that their mother died on the battlefields of Iraq.Despite the slow pacing, I find "Grace Is Gone" rather captivating. The character development and portrayal are excellent. The father and the two daughters have different personalities. The father does unconventional and even irresponsible things to hide his grief. The elder daughter is mature and bright, and likes to do things right. The younger daughter is innocent, just like an eight year old ought to be. This remarkable contrast creates chemistry, making viewers interested in knowing what will happen next. The ending scene is painful and emotional, and yet not overdone or over-dramatic. I think "Grace Is Gone" is a good film to touch one's heart.