Grace Is Gone

Theatrical Release Date: 2007 10 05 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 796019811729

Studio: Weinstein Company

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:null

Summary: The contemplative, understated tearjerker Grace Is Gone dramatizes the quiet crisis that befalls Stanley (John Cusack), a young Midwestern husband of a female marine stationed in Iraq, and a father of two girls. Suddenly and unexpectedly widowed when his wife, Grace, is killed on the battlefield, Stanley cannot bring himself to share the devastating news with his two young daughters. In lieu of speaking to them immediately about their mother's death, Stanley internalizes his devastation and takes the girls on a road trip while he attempts to sort through a myriad of conflicted and tumultuous internal feelings about the war itself and contemplates how to break the shattering news. Inevitably, the road trip will end with Grace's funeral. This film represents the brainchild of producer/star Cusack and writer/director James C. Strouse. It began with Cusack's fury about the Bush administration's policy banning footage of caskets returning from the Iraq and Afghani wars, and his desire to see those events played out onscreen, in the lives of American citizens. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Audience Award – Sundance Film Festival Best Screenplay – Sundance Film Festival Film Presented – Chicago International Film Festival Best Composer – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Original Score – null Best Original Song – null Best Original Song – null Film Presented – London Film Festival Best Original Song – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Song – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Score – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: A conversation on Grace
Inspiration for Grace Is Gone
Profile of TAPS, a Tragedy Assistance Program
Theatrical trailer

Grace Is Gone

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 05/27/2008

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo, DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 84 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: Spanish,English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Grace Is Gone
1. Home Store [4:55]
2. I was in the Shower [7:21]
3. What If We Did? [6:07]
4. A Call Home [2:42]
5. Something Fun [4:54]
6. You're Not Upset? [6:01]
7. Her Time of Day [5:53]
8. What's Going On? [6:12]
9. Let's Split One [6:45]
10. All Grown Up [2:48]
11. Anybody Home? [5:26]
12. The Definition of Duty [4:29]
13. Mission Accomplished [4:27]
14. Enchanted Gardens [4:58]
15. I Need to Tell You Something [4:21]
16. Grace Ann Phillips [2:08]
17. Is It Time? [:24]
18. Credits [5:10]

Derek Armstrong

A fundamentally small and intimate film, Grace Is Gone may be remembered more for failing to achieve the larger expectations that burden it than for successfully doing what it sets out to do. James C. Strouse's film won the audience award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. But when it couldn't generate the ticket sales to justify its purchase price, it served as a major cautionary tale for Sundance buyers the following year -- who demonstrated newfound disbelief that this insider's festival could predict wider viewing trends. Grace Is Gone also suffered from its status as another drama dealing with the consequences of the Iraq War, in a season when audiences were bypassing such movies by the bushel. But those who saw it witnessed a deeply internal lead performance from John Cusack, and heartbreaking turns by the two young actresses playing his daughters (Sh?lan O'Keefe and Gracie Bednarczyk). The mere idea of their mother's mortality scares them to death, and since the audience knows they'll soon have to cope with the actual fact of it, each scene is pregnant with eventual mourning. Cusack sheds all vanity to assume the role of a bespectacled working Joe with a limp, a man whose unwavering patriotism makes his private grieving all the more complicated. His impromptu road trip to an amusement park, more than a day's drive from home, may have made the film tougher to swallow -- it's hard not to feel stressed, wondering how it will all turn out, and whether the girls would really remain in the dark in the face of such erratic parental behavior. But viewers who accept Strouse's choices will probably also agree that when the truth will change everything, fighting to keep innocence alive -- for just a little while longer -- is about the most parental instinct there is. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

Cast and Crew: John Cusack  Producer 
Clint Eastwood  Composer (Music Score) 
Galt Niederhoffer  Producer 
Max Richter  Composer (Music Score) 
Grace Loh  Producer 
James C. Strouse  Director 
James C. Strouse  Screenwriter 
Daniela Taplin-Lundberg  Producer 
Celine Rattray  Producer 
Reagan Silber  Executive Producer 
Jai Stefan  Executive Producer 
Ed Hart  Executive Producer 
Bruce Lunsford  Executive Producer 
Paul Bernstein  Executive Producer 
Todd Traina  Executive Producer 
John Cusack  Actor 
Shélan O'Keefe  Actor 
Gracie Bednarczyk  Actor 
Alessandro Nivola  Actor 

Country: USA