I can’t suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy films like Grace Is Gone, and the only reason that I tried was because I love John Cusack. First, whenever a film is about a current event and is made by someone with a distinct opinion about that event, but that person has to pretend like that isn’t the case for the majority of the film, I wish that I could arch my eyebrow like a certain Vulcan. At that point, the movie has to be a million times better for me to get me to resuspend any disbelief. Second, I’m really tired of the trope of the dead mother so a father has to deal with raising two girls. In Grace is Gone, initially it is really a provocative idea because usually it is the wife who waits for the husband to come back home from war then must adjust to life without him. The opening scene focuses on a military spouses support group and perfectly illustrates established gender norms next to reality. The lost opportunity for further contrasting juxtapositions in the rest of Grace Is Gone is searing. Grace Is Gone ends up being a rambling road trip about grief and loss that didn’t feel realistic. When you’re poor or lower middle class, grief does not erase financial concerns. Grief highlights it. I need a filmmaker raised in France, but living in US to remake Grace Is Gone. Side note: Cusack’s character is supposed to be a veteran as well, but I had no idea until after I finished the film and read about it. Was it a blink and you’ll miss it moment or am I clueless? Grace Is Gone is adequate, but didn’t rise to the greatness of its cast.