Cinema Society

GRACE IS GONE

Average
Rating

3.5

Monday, November 26, 2007, AMC La Jolla 12 Theatres

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26

7:15PM: Introduction, Auditorium 4

7:20PM: Introduction, Auditorium 5

7:30PM: GRACE IS GONE, Auditoriums 4 & 5

Auditoriums 4 & 5

Discussion will follow screening in Auditorium 4

AMC La Jolla 12 Theatres

Audience Award Winner and

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award Winner

2007 Sundance Film Festival

GRACE IS GONE

GRACE IS GONE is a heart-wrenching drama about a young father (John Cusack) whose soldier wife has just been killed in Iraq. Rather than tell his two daughters the news, he decides to take them on a cross-country road trip to an amusement park.

Marking the directorial debut of James Strouse, GRACE IS GONE was inspired by a similar trip Strouse made with his older brother and his two children several years ago. A Weinstein Company Release, GRACE IS GONE opens commercially in San Diego on December 7th.

Rated PG-13 for thematic material, brief strong language and teen smoking

Running Time: 90 Minutes

PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT TAKES PLACE ON A MONDAY.

Send a Comment

4-Dec-07: Nancy H. - Rating: 2

Grace is Gone was a disappointment. I thought it could have been edited much tighter. Did we really need to see the passing of storefronts outside the car window, town after town? The most interesting part of the movie, in my mind, was when the brother appeared in the story.

Just filming the dad & the two girls constantly in the car, jumping on the bed, or clothes shopping, did not generate much interest for me. One question I had — when does this poor man sleep?! Not very often.

Having nEVER having seen Grace, the mother — even in flashbacks, or at the very beginning of the story — made it hard for you to feel the loss of her.

Definitely would NOT recommend this movie, even as a rental.

27-Nov-07: M.Roe - Rating: 4

As much as one can like a heartbreaking film like this, I liked it. Of course I am fan of John Cusak...he’s my generation’s “guy” and I think he might be all growns-up now (does that mean I have to be too?) no longer is he our geeky pal that helped get us through our prepubescent stages in “Sixteen Candles” or as ‘Lloyd Dobler‘ in “Say Anything...then becoming the “cool guy” ‘Martin Q. Blank’ in “Grosse Pointe Blank” or ‘Rob Gordon’ in “High Fidelity” (of course there were oodles of films in between and since) he’s my generations Gary Cooper? or maybe Van Johnson? Not necessarily the big man on campus but sincere and dear and all the things you like in an “everyday guy” and yet oozes with tremendous talent (though modest)...In the film when I saw him walking down the corridor at work I thought that he could have been Kevin Spacey (he’s too “mature” now?...and think "Pay it Forward") with the weight of the world on his slumped shoulders and slightly off walk...Though the “daughters” in the film were first time actors I thought they did very well and I think that was a good idea to have first timers because there might have been a tendency for a “seasoned” young actor to over act (your Dakota Fanning types) and they needed to be real I thought they conveyed that very well...I wonder if there will be “extras” in the DVD, mainly to explain who “Mary” was and maybe let the Grandmother speak, I saw her at the funeral/church (recognized the actress mainly from “The Big Chill”) and she seems like the type who’d have something to say...anyway it’d be nice to have those little blanks filled in.

I thought the film was not a “War” film, though it’s no secret that it is about losing a wife and mother to war, it didn’t have to necessarily be this war in Iraq, in fact I don’t remember them mentioning Iraq specifically other than showing Rumsfield on the news, they don’t even mention the President by name (though yes, it is clear who the brother is referring to during the “discussion” at the kitchen table) and maybe because it is in our everyday life right now we “assume”. Could it not have easily have been the Gulf War or some other “police action”? I’ll go even further and say it didn’t have to be about losing her in a war...if they wanted they could have had her traveling a lot (she’s the bread winner and he resents it the way he resented he wasn’t the one sent away to battle do his duty) and then she dies in a car accident or something and he still runs away from having to explain why mommy isn’t coming home...my point is that it’s about the relationship between a Dad and his kids, a Dad who though is going through his own internal struggle of anger, frustration and helplessness he is basically biding his time until wife/mother comes home to take care of him and the kids and he can get back to doing his own thing...and though one can't imagine something good ever becoming from a death of a loved one, it just might be the only way this Dad and his kids were ever going to be the family they needed to be.

27-Nov-07: JFY - Rating: 3

I felt that the film really followed the following quote: "While Cusack called the film "a bit of a Rorschach test" of people's views about the war [he stressed that the] movie is a drama, not a political speech." The film really left it up to the viewer to decide for themselves, what did John's character really think or feel, what do you really think or feel.

Did others see Marisa Tomei’s name in the end credits, is she woman at the pool with the smoking boy (either the mother or the autistic woman, depending on what you believe is the truth)? Also, sorry to say but I couldn't help but be reminded of the Griswold family's cross-country drive to the Walley World in National Lampoon's Vacation.

26-Nov-07: KS - Rating: 5

Andy

I was so touched by this film. Grieving is so private and different with everyone. John Cusak was magnificent in his role. I too, could not bring myself to tell my son at age 11, that his father was gone, for two long days. I lived this movie.

I want to buy it when it comes out in DVD and save it for my son.

Thank you for showing this film.