Last night I watched my first movie from Netflix (actual DVD that is). It was an independent film starring John Cusack, who is probably my favorite actor right now in movies (of my generation anyway).
I can't tell you how impressed I was. From the minute he takes the screen to the very last minute of the film my brain struggled to believe it was him. He looked and acted like his older, much less cool brother. I think he put on a little weight for the roll too. The transformation was really quite something.
The movie is called GRACE IS GONE and it's the story of a man who's wife is in Iraq while he's back home raising the kids. When the military stops by to let him know she's been killed (this happens in the first five minutes so I'm not giving anything away) he isn't sure how to handle it, and even moreso he doesn't know how to tell the girls.
The rest of the movie is about an impromptu road trip to Enchanted Gardens that the three of them take (the movie version of Disney Land).
As with a lot of indie movies, the pace is slow. It always seems like when an independant movie wants to depict real people they think the key is to have us move really slow and talk really queit all the time. I do like though the way they film driving scenes, showing it from the drivers angle driving down TYPICAL streets really makes it easy to identify with the characters. At times I felt as if I could pass them by on the road the next time I go do some shopping.
I'm not sure how they do that. Most movies you always feel as if it's a movie, but good indie films really bring that feeling or reality to you. Atleast they do for me.
Along the way on this trip the war is discussed from both sides, without being preachy.
I really thought the movie did a great job of showing the way a real person, a real family might handle such a catastrophe. Although I doubt most would go on a road trip to a theme park, the husband struggling with both how to tell his girls at the same time he was struggling with the shock of his own loss was very interesting and well done.
As most of you know I lean right and was in favor of the war. I'm still not in favor of just packing up and leaving. But even for me, seeing a movie like this, with the human cost of war shown on an individual level, is a good thing.
It doesn't change my opinion, but it's a good reminder of the sacrifice being made not only by the several thousand soldiers that have died, but by the tens of thousands of family members and friends they've left behind.
I highly recommend this one, but it's not a movie that you'll enjoy if you need action, comedy, or most of the other things you'd find in a major film. This is all about a relationship between a father and his two daughters.
