Grace Is Gone

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, ...more

Grace is Gone opens with a woman's voice on an outgoing answering machine recording. It's rather generic, saying, "Grace, Stanley, Heidi, and Dawn aren't here right now, so leave a message." It's followed by shots of unoccupied rooms, making it clear that something and someone is missing. That missing link is Grace, the family's matriarch, a woman who, despite her physical absence, still has a presence in the household. The answering machine takes on poignant meaning throughout the film and it ...more

A fundamentally small and intimate film, Grace Is Gone may be remembered more for failing to achieve the larger expectations that burdened 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 ...more