[Film Review] Grace Is Gone

Grace is Gone is a very private movie, dealing with the consequences of a very public matter: War. Rather than follow the current theme of ‘finger pointing’, Grace is Gone casts aside all exterior concerns and narrows in on the most rudimentary dilemma in times of war - how the family unit deals with loss.

Written and directed by James C. Strouse (who’s only other film credit is as writer of the critically-acclaimed 2005 film, ‘Lonesome Jim’), ‘Grace is Gone’ stars John Cusack as Stanley Phillips, a middle-aged retail manager. Father of two daughters: 12-and-a-half year old Heidi (Shelan O’Keefe), and 8 year old Dawn (Grace Bednarczyk), Stanley is in the rather unusual circumstance whereby his wife, and mother to the children, Grace, is serving as a soldier in the Iraq war. When the harrowing news arrives that Grace has been killed, Stanley - whose persona is more akin to that of a provider as opposed to that of a homemaker - becomes emotionally frozen. Unable to find the words, or strength, to break the news to his daughters, Stanley instead lures them on a road-trip to an amusement park a couple of days drive away. And so begins a heartbreaking journey; not only in the literal sense across the grandiosely corporate, yet strikingly isolated, mid-west of America; but also for Stanley, as he gradually becomes close enough to his daughters to reveal the truth to them.

Grace is Gone recently won the ‘Audience Prize’ at ‘Sundance’, the film festival founded by Robert Redford. Considering the deeply personal subject matter, and how it directly mirrors the afflictions of the Iraq war, it comes as no surprise that American audiences are unanimously warming to the film.

However, the fact that it also won the ‘Critics Award’ at the Deauville Film Festival (France) suggests that there are other elements which place this rather humble film amongst some of the year’s best. In my opinion, two elements specifically: the cinematography, and the original score. Renowned French cinematographer Jean-Louis Bompoint’s (‘Science of Sleep’) photography of Middle America quietly encapsulates the hypocrisy the superpower tries so hard to mask. Using very wide lenses, and staged compositional shots of America’s corporate highway (e.g. a giant Starbucks, or an overwhelmingly indulgent Toys ‘R’ Us), Bompoint poignantly highlights how America’s ‘shock and awe’ submission tactics are not reserved for war purposes alone. The score is composed by Clint Eastwood (who also scored for his films ‘Mystic River’ and ‘Flags of our Fathers’), and it is this element which sledges the figurative axe into the heart of viewers emotions. Subtle, melancholic, and ethereal, Eastwood’s score runs parallel to Stanley’s journey, sounding reminiscent to that of a child’s musical box. During some of the most emotionally arresting scenes, all audio is drained from the soundtrack except for the score - a heartbreaking method to confront audiences and leave their emotions with nowhere to hide.

Gentle and poignant, Grace is Gone is a clever film put together by just a few of the ever-growing number of American’s who desperately want to see their nation return to grace.

Grace Is Gone has not yet been released in Australia, keep an eye out for it!