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Re: 2007 Film List
Grace is Gone - 8 of 10
superb little film with John Cusack giving a wonderful, awards type performance. I think I preferred him in Martian Child but he transforms here.
The story is that both he and his wife were in the army, met fell in love married, but he was eventually kicked out when they found out he was cheating on his eye tests. Now Grace has shipped out to Iraq, leaving him to care for their 12 and 8 year old daughters, and managing a Home Depot.
She is killed and he can't deal. They just drive, to disney world.
the performances by the little girls are excellent, they are superbly directed, with pitch perfect business and dialogue. Likewise the adults in the film are all good, and the overall a quite powerful story that is exactly as long as it needs to be.
except the film is hampered by us never quite understanding why he deals with his grief like this, why he continually runs away from it. this is only redeemed by the script causing the elder daughter to follow along with her father's method of grief, there is understanding in her eyes and bearing, and she flees from it. She knows everything, but chooses not to know anything. so it makes the moment when she is explicitly told the truth all the more heartbreaking. That moment is worth the frustrations earlier in the film, but it results in a film that isn't cohesive or consistent. But it is wonderful, and worth seeking out.
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