Grace Is Gone

Stanley's wife is killed in Iraq. He cannot tell his two daughters. Instead of telling them he puts them in the car and drives to a Florida theme park, waiting the whole way for the right moment. The film is not interested in the war. It is interested in the inability to speak: Stanley supports the war, tried to enlist and was rejected over his eyesight, and the sentence he owes his daughters will bring down everything he believes. The film keeps political argument largely outside and stays inside the weight of that one sentence. The form is small: a car, motels, gas stations and a cast of three. The camera rests on Cusack's face rather too long. James C. Strouse wrote and directed. The film won the Audience Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance in 2007. Clint Eastwood wrote the score, the only film he has scored without directing, and it brought him a Golden Globe nomination. John Cusack plays the father, moving markedly away from his comedy career. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet family drama and want Cusack's dramatic side. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the political dimension. The film says almost nothing about the war itself, which some will find evasive.