| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 24, 2011

| Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Depicts a side of the Iraq war, the American home front, that has been barely touched in other Iraq war movies.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 27, 2008

Despite the strength of the cast (in particular O'Keefe, who's making her film debut here and shows tremendous promise), it's hard to muster much enthusiasm for Grace Is Gone.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 25, 2008

Good intentions can only go so far.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 25, 2008

It's a narrative strategy that neither informs, challenges nor heals.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/6 | Jan 18, 2008

Cusack's climactic confession is heartrending. But too many other moments strain credibility.

| Jan 3, 2008

Not a great movie, simply functional, but Cusack gives a great performance.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 14, 2007

'Grace is Gone' works best in the quiet moments. ... Shelan O'Keefe couldn't be better ... this low-keyed weepie belongs to her.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 14, 2007

It avoids all deeper issues inherent to its subject matter, choosing instead to simply be a slice of depressing life that you won't want to take.

| Dec 14, 2007

This is a very strong and very moving film.

Full Review | Dec 10, 2007

A barbell of a movie that carries some weight at either end. What's in between is purely utilitarian, though.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 7, 2007

This is a movie that lobs even appropriate criticisms from a safe distance, a flaw its strengths can't overcome.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 7, 2007

In a year that has seen wave after wave of films addressing the war in Iraq with varying degrees of anger and frustration, Grace serves as a gently thoughtful coda and reminder of what continues.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 7, 2007

A moving and tender family drama, built on the foundation of a serious contemporary issue.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 6, 2007

For most of its 85 minutes Grace Is Gone, a small, tender film about contemporary parenthood in wartime, carries off a delicate balancing act.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2007

Grace Is Gone attempts to address grief frankly, gently, and without didacticism, and it largely succeeds.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Dec 6, 2007

Cusack has never been better; he disappears into his character's repressed skin so utterly, we can barely recognize in him the perky teen heartthrob of Say Anything.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 6, 2007

Rather than challenging our national aversion to unhappy endings, both in life and in cinema, [director] Strouse plays right into it. He's devised Grace Is Gone to work on our sentiments the way a porn movie works on our libidos.

| Dec 6, 2007

Sure, it's a tearjerker with more than a few mushy moments of unhindered grief, but they match the situation. So does Cusack.

Full Review | Dec 5, 2007