Told in a fractured, non-linear style, with overlapping narratives retelling the story from different perspectives, the parts can be tantilising but the whole doesn't come together the way it should, the payoff being more of a whimper than a bang.
The actors are all strong, with Mitchell and Roxburgh (a long way from TV's Rake) putting in fine performances, and a breakthrough turn from Young, whose elusive Grace holds this subtle saga together.
Variety
February 04, 2016
Even as its tone circles back to aching naturalism, there's something tenuous about the pic's tender resolution -- not to mention a teasing sense that more interesting untold stories might lie on the untold fringes.
With its painterly eye for the parched saltpans and wheat fields bisected by snaking roads, the film has a lonely, elegiac beauty. The unexpected comedy can give way in an instant to something darker, but it's never mean-spirited.
It is really only when we're with Grace, and when the things that happen are happening to her, that we find any of the grace that Brooks is looking for.
The main disappointment of Looking for Grace is the finale, which replaces the Altmanesque ensemble style with something reminiscent of Kiéslowski's last works.
The characters depicted are flawed in all sorts of ways, but Brooks's evident sympathy for all of them shines through and the result is an offbeat road movie filled with surprises and revelations.
Brooks generally is so bewitched by her characters' opacity that they remain frustratingly remote, even in the rare moments when they open up, diminishing the sorrow of the final-act tragedy.