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Grace Is Gone
Grace Is Gone Image
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Metascore
65 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 11 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: John Cusack
  • Summary: There was a time when Stanley Phillips could see his entire life clearly. He dreamed of patriotic service and was destined for a military career. He came close to that dream until it was cut short simply because of his poor eyesight. Now he's serving customers at a home supply store while his sergeant wife is fighting in Iraq. Equally as awkward at home as he is at work, he's raising Heidi, their 12-year-old daughter, and Dawn, her 8-year-old sister. Although a loving father, Stanley is unable to conform to a more affectionate role, and the girls miss their mother deeply. While tolerating his job and stumbling through parenting he is abruptly awakened when tragedy strikes. Ill prepared to deal with it himself, he is at a complete loss contemplating how to tell his children. He's desperate to delay telling the children, so they embark on a spontaneous road trip. Grasping to give them their last moments of innocence, Stanley reveals a softer side as they travel to Dawn's chosen destination: Enchanted Gardens Theme Park. The farther they drive, the closer they become, yet Stanley knows he must face the inevitable task of changing their lives forever. (The Weinstein Company)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Tasha Robinson
    83
    Attempts to address grief frankly, gently, and without didacticism, and it largely succeeds.
  2. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    80
    Mr. Cusack demonstrates once again that he is Hollywood's second-most-reliable nice guy, after Tom Hanks. Devoid of vanity, with no hidden agendas, he never strains to be likable. Good will, integrity and a native common sense ooze out of him.
  3. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    50
    A disappointing and manipulative look at one family's loss in the Iraq war.

See all 18 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. ChrisP.
    10
    Really, really emotional.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. ChadS.
    7
    Is she in denial, the older daughter, Heidi(Shelan O'Keefe), who at twelve, should recognize the tell-tale signs(a casserole at the front door, a family meeting suddenly aborted) that something is amiss, before the incomplete family piles into the family car? Their trip to an amusement park(reminiscent of "National Lampoon's Vacation"; possible social commentary, perhaps, the war as Dub-ya's World), as a way for the father(John Cusack) to stop time, rings false, because "Grace is Gone" underestimates the intelligence of children. And even worse, in the opening scene, Stanley attends a millitary wives' meeting, played for laughs. Emasculating a soldier's husband is no way to honor the countless women with children serving our country. But in spite of it all, when the father tells his children that mom isn't coming home, "Grace is Gone" offers up an anti-war moment that bests anything from the recent slate of films about our post-9/11 world; W.'s world, not Walley's World. Stanley supports his wife, her mission, but in that same jingoistic conversation with his kids, the war husband says that he sells s*** to people. "Grace is Gone" would've been an unqualified success had the director made it clear that Heidi knows, so Heidi hides, just like her father, from the truth.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. JayH.
    5
    It's not a bad film. Good score, well acted. But I am not sure why it was made. Okay, his wife dies. And... There is very little in the film you can sink your teeth into. They could have told it all in about 8 minutes.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

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