Mourning the death of his wife, Stanley Philips, an ambitious and smart man, whose wife, a soldier, has been died in the war in Iraq, the thing that challenges him, as he can't tell his daughters, so he takes them in a road trip, where he enjoys spending time with them.
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.
The power of the ending comes from the inherent pain of loss, but it's no feat to recognize how emotional this would be, to tell us it's coming and to dangle it in front of us for an hour and a half.
This heartfelt film is a bitter-sweet snapshot of a man and the special relationship he cements with his daughters as he takes them on a spur-of-the-moment road-trip.
the mood is as overcast as the sky that follows the Phillips' as they head for Florida and the inevitable moment of revelation. Grace Is Gone is a downer worthy of a super-sized box of Kleenex
