Cusack's class act saves 'Grace'; A single superb performance elevates war-related family drama

'Grace Is Gone' Rating 3 out of 4

Stanley John Cusack

Heidi Shelan O'Keefe

Dawn Gracie Bednarczyk

John Alessandro Nivola

Grace Dana Lynne

Gilhooley

The Weinstein Company presents a film written and directed byJames C. Strouse. Running time: 85 minutes. Rated PG-13 (forthematic material, brief strong language and teen smoking). Openingtoday at Webster Place.

John Cusack can project such tenderness and kindness. He doesn'toften play roles that give him the chance, but when he does ("SayAnything," "High Fidelity," "Being John Malkovich"), he knows how todo it. His character Stanley Phillips in "Grace Is Gone" is one ofhis most vulnerable and is the key to the movie's success.

He is a suburban dad with two young daughters and a wife in themilitary. He supports the war in Iraq and would be there himself ifhe didn't have bad eyes. One day, two Army officers come to his doorand he won't invite them in, as if he's reluctant to accept the newsthey've come to tell him: His wife has been killed in the war.

Their girls are Heidi (Shelan O'Keefe), 12 years old, and Dawn(Gracie Bednarczyk), who is 8. He sits them down in the living roomto break the news and finds that he simply cannot. Instead, in acrazy evasion, he improvises on the spur of the moment and announcesthey will get in the car and drive to Enchanted Gardens, a Floridatheme park they like. Heidi, who is very smart, thinks this soundsfishy: He's pulling them out of school to go on an unannouncedholiday? Dawn doesn't ask any questions.

The trip involves the usual cookie-cutter roadside chain eateriesand the usual interstate highway sameness, although it is punctuatedby a stop to visit Stanley's brother John (Alessandro Nivola), alayabout who rouses himself at the sight of Stanley to startattacking the war. Stanley won't be baited. He shares his secret,begs it be kept a secret and loads the girls back in the car.

Enchanted Gardens, as it turns out, is not quite enchanted enoughto be the right setting for breaking the bad news, which Heidi hasmore or less intuited on her own. But there does come a time on thebeach when the truth must be told, and he does it gently and withlove. That's what the movie is really about, anyway: not the war,but Stanley's love for his daughters.

There have been many scenes where mothers told children about thedeaths of their fathers, but almost none where the roles arereversed, as in "Grace Is Gone." The movie comes as a quietrevelation. Every time a news program features the faces and namesof U.S. troops killed in Iraq, I feel a little shock when they showa woman. It doesn't seem right. Getting killed in the war doesn'tseem right for anyone, of course, but you know what I mean.

"Grace Is Gone" is not a great movie, simply functional, butCusack gives a great performance. The film somehow doesn't live upto his work. It wasn't shot on video (and, for that matter, goodvideo these days can look great), but the screen looks dingy andsome life seems to be faded from it.

The story drags its feet a little, too, considering we know wherethey're going and what must happen when they get there. And apossible political confrontation between the two brothers is soadroitly sidestepped that the movie, although probably anti-war,never really declares itself. All we have is a father who has losthis wife and two girls who have lost their mother. The way Cusackhandles that, it's enough.