Review of Grace Is Gone (2007) by Chads. — 27 May 2008

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.