While most anti-war movies are filled with blood-spattered scenes depicting the brutality of the battlefield, Grace is Gone focuses on the emotional turmoil a man goes through after his wife dies in Iraq. The anti-war messages are rendered more powerful by the tender portrayal of the bereaved family's sense of loss.
At the centre of the family tragedy is Stanley Phillips (John Cusack). After hearing of his wife's death, Phillips takes his two young daughters, 12-year-old Heidi (Shelan O'Keefe) and eight-year-old Dawn (Gracie Bednarczyk) on a trip from Minnesota to Florida. Philips refrains from telling them of their mother's death until nearly the end of their journey.
Cusack is on top form, portraying the despondent widower, a role which is worlds away from the roles he has played in his recent action and romantic films. And O'Keefe's melancholic and wistful stares are absorbing.
Scene after scene of a forlorn Cusack are intended to make the audience empathise with his loss and struggle.
But given the glut of sentimental scenes, it seems director-writer James C. Strouse is trying too hard to tug at our heartstrings. When you take away the scenes of father and children, very little remains.