Hey folks, Harry here with Quint's concubine in Sundance - Rav. Heat is hard to come by in that frozen tundra - so Quint took along the warmest most cuddily thing, this side of a Kraken. Rav is of course the biggest movie lover out there - and I have to say - this sounds fantastic. The film was picked up at Sundance shortly after this screening by The Weinstein Company. Harvey's plan seems to be this, he feels it's an Award season flick, to be released in November - for a awards push for John Cusack, saying, "It's Cusack's Turn!" Here's what Rav has to say, here ya go...

Heya Guys,

Sorry for my slacking off on writing reviews here in Sundance, it’s really hard to cram six to seven movies a day as well as keep up with writing, eating, and sleep. I tried just skipping eating and a little bit of sleep, but it yielded perhaps the worst review ever of Chicago 10. The thing was so bad I refuse to send it in, if you think my grammar and writing sucks here, you should see my writing at four AM while sitting outside in the snow. I may still attach that poor excuse of a review to the end of one of my other sundance articles for laughs later. I’d rewrite it if it wasn’t for the fact that I feel very indifferent about the movie and don’t want to spend another minute thinking about it, the only reason I wrote it in the first place was because it had been the only movie screened at the time.

I am going to review a movie here that I saw late last night at the end of a depressing six movie day where every movie seemed to deal with torture, suicide, murder, more suicide, murder/suicide, crappy park posey movies, and finally coping with death, that last film is Grace is Gone by James Strouse, starring John Cusack.

Grace is Gone - written and directed by James Strouse

Stanley Phillips (John Cusack) is an ordinary guy, he manages a home improvement store where he comes in everyday chanting and getting everyone excited about another mundane day selling shit. He’s taking care of his two daughters, Heidi (around five or six) and Dawn (around fourteen) while his wife is serving in Iraq. Understandably the family has trouble coming to terms with her absence, Stanley tries to deal with it by going to a support group for wives of soldiers where he feels like a complete misfit being the only husband there. The girls deal with it in their own way.

One morning after the girls had left for school and Stanley was getting ready for work he’s greeted by two soldiers at his door informing him that his wife had been killed in the line of duty. When the kids get home from school Stanley struggles with how to tell them the news as he’s still struggling to accept it himself. He keeps coming up with ways to delay the inevitable and cheer them up to soften the blow. He goes so far to give in to the little one’s pleas to go to a disney-land-like amusement park, dropping everything to drive to Florida and that’s the roadtrip that’s the basis for the film.

This film made me cry at a couple of moments (and I rarely cry at movies), it’s hard not to feel for Stanley’s character at such a trying moment facing being alone with his girls and having to tell them that they’ll never see their mother again. I think you’d have to be a heartless bastard to sit through this movie and not get at very least a little tear swelling in your eyeduct. The two girls apparently haven’t acted in a film before, which is quite surprising as they are very natural, particularly the older one, she’s got a bright future ahead of her. John Cusack gives his best performance since Being John Malkovich.

One of the very bright moments of the film is when they meet up with Stanley’s brother played by Allesandro Nivola. His brother is very liberal and anti-war, which is quite a clash as Stanley is ex-military himself and supports the war as his wife does as well. When his brother criticizes he war in front of his children it’s an emotional wound for Stanley as he feels it insults his wife and he can’t live with the idea that she may have just died for no good reason at all. It’s an amazing part of the film that’s deeply affecting and the only part of the film that really discusses the politics of the matter, for the most part its just a simple journey of a man trying to tell cope with the death of his wife and tell his children.

The film was shot by Jean Louis-Bompoint (Science of Sleep), it’s a very beautiful looking natural movie with it’s photography never feeling showy or flat. It seems to have been shot with very on-the-fly style that suits the story perfectly.

I loved the film and I wouldn’t be surprised if it won the jury award this year, but that may be me talking too early, I’ve only seen half the dramatic competition films so far.

Rav
Ravkill@msn.com