Actor Jack Huston says two creative sparks convinced him to make his feature directing debut with boxing drama Day of the Fight. The first concerned the premise; the second, his star.
“Several years ago, I was watching Stanley Kubrick’s first film, a documentary short he shot in 1951, also called Day of the Fight,” Huston says. The film famously follows the great Irish American boxer Walter Cartier over the course of an ordinary day as he prepares for a 10 p.m. title bout.
“It’s this amazing glimpse into the real life of a boxer,” Huston explains. “He eats breakfast, he goes to church, he visits his twin brother, he goes around town — and it’s all leading up to a big prize fight. I remember thinking, ‘What a wonderful premise for a deeper narrative to develop.’ As we follow our boxer through his day and meet the people in his world,...
“Several years ago, I was watching Stanley Kubrick’s first film, a documentary short he shot in 1951, also called Day of the Fight,” Huston says. The film famously follows the great Irish American boxer Walter Cartier over the course of an ordinary day as he prepares for a 10 p.m. title bout.
“It’s this amazing glimpse into the real life of a boxer,” Huston explains. “He eats breakfast, he goes to church, he visits his twin brother, he goes around town — and it’s all leading up to a big prize fight. I remember thinking, ‘What a wonderful premise for a deeper narrative to develop.’ As we follow our boxer through his day and meet the people in his world,...
- 8/30/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Jack Huston is set to make his feature directorial debut with Day of the Fight, a project that will reteam him with his Boardwalk Empire colleague Michael Pitt, who will star.
Huston will also write and produce the movie about a once celebrated boxer who takes a redemptive journey through his past and present, on the day of his first fight since leaving prison. Production is underway in New York and New Jersey.
Day of the Fight will also star One Night in Miami‘s Nicolette Robinson, Oscar winner Joe Pesci, John Magaro and Ron Perlman.
Producers are also Josh Porter, Jai Stefan, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Colleen Camp. EPs are Todd Diener and William Santor. Financing was handled by Productivity Media, Inc.
Huston tells Deadline, “I am both humbled and honored to be directing my first film with such an incredible cast and crew. It truly is a privilege...
Huston will also write and produce the movie about a once celebrated boxer who takes a redemptive journey through his past and present, on the day of his first fight since leaving prison. Production is underway in New York and New Jersey.
Day of the Fight will also star One Night in Miami‘s Nicolette Robinson, Oscar winner Joe Pesci, John Magaro and Ron Perlman.
Producers are also Josh Porter, Jai Stefan, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Colleen Camp. EPs are Todd Diener and William Santor. Financing was handled by Productivity Media, Inc.
Huston tells Deadline, “I am both humbled and honored to be directing my first film with such an incredible cast and crew. It truly is a privilege...
- 12/15/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Joe Pesci has signed on to star in Pete Davidson’s upcoming Peacock comedy series “Bupkis,” Variety has learned.
Davidson will star in the series along with Pesci and previously announced cast member Edie Falco. The show was ordered to series at Peacock in April.
“Bupkis” is a half-hour comedy that is loosely based on Davidson’s real life. Falco will star as Davidson’s mother with Pesci now set to play Davidson’s grandfather.
This marks just the second regular television role of Pesci’s career. Prior to this, he starred in the short-lived NBC series “Half Nelson” in 1985. Pesci is best known for his film career, in particular his collaborations with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. The trio have worked together on seminal films like “Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas,” “Casino,” and “The Irishman.” Pesci won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his work in “Goodfellas” and...
Davidson will star in the series along with Pesci and previously announced cast member Edie Falco. The show was ordered to series at Peacock in April.
“Bupkis” is a half-hour comedy that is loosely based on Davidson’s real life. Falco will star as Davidson’s mother with Pesci now set to play Davidson’s grandfather.
This marks just the second regular television role of Pesci’s career. Prior to this, he starred in the short-lived NBC series “Half Nelson” in 1985. Pesci is best known for his film career, in particular his collaborations with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. The trio have worked together on seminal films like “Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas,” “Casino,” and “The Irishman.” Pesci won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his work in “Goodfellas” and...
- 8/25/2022
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
In a return to acting — and television — Oscar winner Joe Pesci will star opposite Pete Davidson and Edie Falco in Bupkis, Peacock’s upcoming half-hour live-action comedy that tells a heightened, fictionalized version of Davidson‘s life.
The high-profile casting completes Davidson’s on-screen family, with Pesci playing his grandfather and Falco his mother. For Pesci, who is a series regular, this marks only the second TV show; he previously headlined the short-lived 1985 ABC detective comedy-drama Half Nelson.
Pesci, who has earned three Oscar nominations for his dramatic roles in Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, Goodfellas, for which he won, and The Irishman, is also known for his comedic performances in such classics as Home Alone and My Cousin Vinny.
Bringing Pesci back to the screen is a major coup for Davidson, who is co-writing and executive produces Bupkis in addition to starring. In 1999, Pesci announced that he would largely...
The high-profile casting completes Davidson’s on-screen family, with Pesci playing his grandfather and Falco his mother. For Pesci, who is a series regular, this marks only the second TV show; he previously headlined the short-lived 1985 ABC detective comedy-drama Half Nelson.
Pesci, who has earned three Oscar nominations for his dramatic roles in Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, Goodfellas, for which he won, and The Irishman, is also known for his comedic performances in such classics as Home Alone and My Cousin Vinny.
Bringing Pesci back to the screen is a major coup for Davidson, who is co-writing and executive produces Bupkis in addition to starring. In 1999, Pesci announced that he would largely...
- 8/25/2022
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Chicago – In our latest action/fantasy edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 25 admit-two movie passes up for grabs to the advance screening of the new film “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” starring Nicolas Cage! The film opens on Feb. 17, 2012.
In “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” from the director of “Crank,” Nicolas Cage reprises his role as Johnny Blaze. The new Marvel film also stars Ciarán Hinds, Idris Elba, Violante Placido, Johnny Whitworth, Fergus Riordan, Spencer Wilding, Sorin Tofan, Jacek Koman, Anthony Head, Cristian Iacob, Christopher Lambert, Jai Stefan, Vincent Regan and Ionut Cristian Lefter from directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor and writers Scott M. Gimple and Seth Hoffman.
To win your free pass to the advance Chicago screening of “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just answer our question below. That’s it! This advance screening is on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012 at 7 p.m. in downtown Chicago.
In “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” from the director of “Crank,” Nicolas Cage reprises his role as Johnny Blaze. The new Marvel film also stars Ciarán Hinds, Idris Elba, Violante Placido, Johnny Whitworth, Fergus Riordan, Spencer Wilding, Sorin Tofan, Jacek Koman, Anthony Head, Cristian Iacob, Christopher Lambert, Jai Stefan, Vincent Regan and Ionut Cristian Lefter from directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor and writers Scott M. Gimple and Seth Hoffman.
To win your free pass to the advance Chicago screening of “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just answer our question below. That’s it! This advance screening is on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012 at 7 p.m. in downtown Chicago.
- 2/11/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
#05. Arcadia - Olivia Silver Besides the labs, you'll often hear about how Sundance supports young filmmakers in the creative process. As case in point, they often select a short film and a couple of years later re-invite the filmmaker when a feature film version of the given short is made. Last year we had Little Birds and Pariah, and if finished in time (filming was completed in September), this year we could find the feature version based on Olivia Silver's 209 accepted short Little Canyon (see pic above - watch here). Arcadia sees Sundance regular John Hawkes play father to a trio of children which includes Kendall Toole (who once again plays the same role) and the film's Pov, the child in the car's backseat played by an actress (Ryan Simpkins) who might be poised to break out bigger in Park City as a thirteen year-old than the toddler part...
- 11/7/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
"Prom" and "Red State" star Nicholas Braun has joined the comedy "Gay Dude" at Lionsgate and Laurence Mark Productions reports Variety.
Braun plays Michael, a high schooler who makes a pact with friend Matty to lose their virginity before graduation - then Matty comes out of the closet.
"Parks and Recreation" scribe Alan Yang penned the script which Jai Stefan and Laurence Mark are producing.
Braun plays Michael, a high schooler who makes a pact with friend Matty to lose their virginity before graduation - then Matty comes out of the closet.
"Parks and Recreation" scribe Alan Yang penned the script which Jai Stefan and Laurence Mark are producing.
- 7/7/2011
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Nicholas Braun to star in Gay Dude comedy for writer Alan Yang. Lionsgate distributes the comedy which stars Braun as Michael, a guy in high school who makes a pact with his friend Matty to lose their virginity before graduation. That is until Matty surprises Michael and decides to come out of the closet. Jai Stefan and Laurence Mark produce Gay Dude for Laurence Mark Productions. Braun was cast recently in the Hit Somebody hockey comedy for helmer Kevin Smith and also worked with Smith on Red State. That film finds release this October.
- 7/7/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Nicholas Braun to star in Gay Dude comedy for writer Alan Yang. Lionsgate distributes the comedy which stars Braun as Michael, a guy in high school who makes a pact with his friend Matty to lose their virginity before graduation. That is until Matty surprises Michael and decides to come out of the closet. Jai Stefan and Laurence Mark produce Gay Dude for Laurence Mark Productions. Braun was cast recently in the Hit Somebody hockey comedy for helmer Kevin Smith and also worked with Smith on Red State. That film finds release this October.
- 7/7/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Nicholas Braun to star in Gay Dude comedy for writer Alan Yang. Lionsgate distributes the comedy which stars Braun as Michael, a guy in high school who makes a pact with his friend Matty to lose their virginity before graduation. That is until Matty surprises Michael and decides to come out of the closet. Jai Stefan and Laurence Mark produce Gay Dude for Laurence Mark Productions. Braun was cast recently in the Hit Somebody hockey comedy for helmer Kevin Smith and also worked with Smith on Red State. That film finds release this October.
- 7/7/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Lionsgate has developed a new micro-budget film program where they will develop movies with budgets of under $2 million dollars each. The studio wants to make ten of these low budget films a year under this new program, which of course was inspired by Paranormal Activity. According to Joe Drake, Lionsgate's Motion Picture Group president, "Microbudget films involved minimal overhead and very little risk, but a potentially high reward."
They have released the names and information of the first three films to be developed.
Rapturepalooza, with Craig Robinson starring as the Anti-Christ. Chris Matheson wrote the script and Paul Middleditch will direct. Mosaic and Ed Solomon are producing, with production to begin in the spring.
Gay Dude, a Superbad-style coming of age raunchy comedy. Two best friends vow to lose their virginity before graduating high school. Then one confesses he's gay. Script's by Parks and Recreation writer Alan Yang, and it made The Black List.
They have released the names and information of the first three films to be developed.
Rapturepalooza, with Craig Robinson starring as the Anti-Christ. Chris Matheson wrote the script and Paul Middleditch will direct. Mosaic and Ed Solomon are producing, with production to begin in the spring.
Gay Dude, a Superbad-style coming of age raunchy comedy. Two best friends vow to lose their virginity before graduating high school. Then one confesses he's gay. Script's by Parks and Recreation writer Alan Yang, and it made The Black List.
- 3/30/2011
- by Venkman
- GeekTyrant
Lionsgate set the first three films under a new initiative to generate films with budgets under $2 million. The goal for the micro-budget venture is to generate up to 10 films per year, according to Joe Drake, Lionsgate's Motion Picture Group president. The first three films are: Rapturepalooza, with Craig Robinson starring as the Anti-Christ. Chris Matheson wrote the script and Paul Middleditch will direct. Mosaic and Ed Solomon are producing, with production to begin in the spring. Gay Dude, a Superbad-style coming of age raunchy comedy. Two best friends vow to lose their virginity before graduating high school. Then one confesses he's gay. Script's by Parks and Recreation writer Alan Yang, and it made The Black List. Laurence Mark produces with Jai Stefan. 6 Miranda Drive, a supernatural thriller from Wolf Creek writer/director Greg Mclean. Purported to be fact-based, the tale focuses on a family that unwittingly brings a supernatural...
- 3/30/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
NEW YORK -- William H. Macy, Cheryl Hines, Alia Shawkat and Steven Kaplan will star in Brian Hecker's coming-of-age comedy Bart Got a Room for Plum Pictures.
Kaplan plays Bart, a high school senior living in a Florida retirement community with bickering parents (Macy and Hines). The nerdy teen struggles to find a date to his prom with the help of his best friend (Shawkat).
Plum is producing Bart in association with Hart-Lunsford Pictures, Shrink Media Inc., Basra Entertainment, and Benedek Films. Principal photography begins this month in Florida.
Plum's Galt Niederhoffer, Celine Rattray, and Daniela Taplin Lundberg will produce with Shrink's Jai Stefan and Basra's Tony Shawkat. Ed Hart, Bruce Lunsford, Pam Hirsch, Dina Burke, Stephen Benedek, Mario Fallone, Randy Simon, and Michael LeFetra will executive produce.
Macy's many feature credits include Fargo and Wild Hogs. Hines, who recently appeared in Waitress, co-starred with Shawkat on Fox's Arrested Development. The film marks Kaplan's feature debut.
Kaplan plays Bart, a high school senior living in a Florida retirement community with bickering parents (Macy and Hines). The nerdy teen struggles to find a date to his prom with the help of his best friend (Shawkat).
Plum is producing Bart in association with Hart-Lunsford Pictures, Shrink Media Inc., Basra Entertainment, and Benedek Films. Principal photography begins this month in Florida.
Plum's Galt Niederhoffer, Celine Rattray, and Daniela Taplin Lundberg will produce with Shrink's Jai Stefan and Basra's Tony Shawkat. Ed Hart, Bruce Lunsford, Pam Hirsch, Dina Burke, Stephen Benedek, Mario Fallone, Randy Simon, and Michael LeFetra will executive produce.
Macy's many feature credits include Fargo and Wild Hogs. Hines, who recently appeared in Waitress, co-starred with Shawkat on Fox's Arrested Development. The film marks Kaplan's feature debut.
- 10/2/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the festival screening of "Grace Is Gone".Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- "Grace Is Gone" is not a dishonest film for you sense the fledgling filmmaker's sincere desire to deal with grief, the natural outcome of war. But the grief in writer-director James C. Strouse's "Grace" is so heavily manufactured that everything rings hollow. In John Cusack, Strouse has one of the screen's more versatile leading men. Yet Cusack seems strangely remote in a surprisingly one-note performance that requires the audience to supply the emotions.
From the sounds of sniffles in the Eccles Theater here, many will do just that. Much of these feelings owes to the highly manipulative use of two very young actors who play Cusack's adolescent daughters. The eldest, Shelan O'Keefe, is the best thing about the movie. But the younger one, Grace Bednarczyk, is Strouse's go-to person when he needs a quick emotional jolt.
Sensing a hot property, the Weinstein Co. snapped up this picture over the weekend. As an antidote to the Bush administration's determination to keep images of grief over Iraq out of the media, the film may work at the boxoffice as a political statement. In theory though, shouldn't this movie be about any war and any family's loss? The marketing campaign may have to be as manipulative as the movie itself if the distributor is going to convince adult audiences they need a good weep.
Instead of creating an air of normalcy before news of the tragedy breaks, Strouse allows the film to open with a sense of melancholy, loss and anger. One can rationalize this approach, but the film never undergoes a dramatic tonal shift to reflect the impact of unbearable news.
Stanley Phillips' (Cusack) sullenness while his wife is deployed to Iraq, you later learn, is due to the fact the spouses are U.S. Army through and through but Stanley was forced out of the service due to bad eyesight. He fakes good cheer as manager of a large Midwestern housing supply store, but at home he is often silent and overly stern with his kids, Heidi (O'Keefe), 12, and Dawn (Bednarczyk), 8.
Then an Army officer and chaplain knock on the door one morning to inform him that Sgt. Grace Anne Phillips has been killed in Iraq. Stanley goes into shock, which doesn't look all that different from his demeanor the night before. That afternoon, he gathers the family in the living room to break the news -- only he can't. He seeks a delaying tactic by suggesting a dinner out. Heidi points out it is only 4 o'clock.
The remainder of the movie is one delaying tactic after another. Dad suggests an impromptu driving trip to a theme park in Florida. En route, he makes an impromptu visit to his mom's home for an encounter with his unemployed anti-war brother (Alessandro Nivola). A stop at a motel is interrupted by an impromptu middle-of-the-night departure.
All of these "impromptu" incidents are meant to resonate with the sense of loss that such a death brings. Most have a symbolic purpose as well, such as getting the girls' ears pieced at such an early age -- i.e., the premature loss of childhood. Yet these incidents are as blatant as they are bland. The filmmaker's scheme is writ so large on the screen as to provoke embarrassment rather than grief.
The mind starts to wander to little irritating details. When the girls climb back and forth between the front and back seats of the family SUV, you wonder what kind of responsible father would allow his children not to wear seatbelts. The most egregious devise has Stanley constantly calling the home answering machine to hear his wife's voice.
When the movie finally must resolve the dad's prolonged dilemma, half way through the pivotal scene Strouse allows Max Richter's sappy music to drown out the dialogue. The button-pushing music is accompanied by a washed-out look in Jean-Louis Bompoint's cinematography that is apparently meant to give the film true grit. Like all of these strategies, these only underscore the film's lack of true depth.
GRACE IS GONE
The Weinstein Co.
Plum Pictures and New Crime Productions in association with Hart/Lunsford Pictures
Credits:
Writer/director: James C. Strouse
Producers: John Cusack, Grace Loh, Galt Niederhoffer, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Celine Rattray
Executive producers: Paul Bernstein, Reagan Silber, Jai Stefan, Todd Traina
Director of photography: Jean-Louis Bompoint
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Max Richter
Costume designer: Ha Nguyen
Editor: Joe Klotz
Cast:
Stanley Phillips: John Cusack
Heidi: Shelan O'Keefe
Dawn: Gracie Bednarczyk
John: Alessandro Nivola
Running time -- 92 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- "Grace Is Gone" is not a dishonest film for you sense the fledgling filmmaker's sincere desire to deal with grief, the natural outcome of war. But the grief in writer-director James C. Strouse's "Grace" is so heavily manufactured that everything rings hollow. In John Cusack, Strouse has one of the screen's more versatile leading men. Yet Cusack seems strangely remote in a surprisingly one-note performance that requires the audience to supply the emotions.
From the sounds of sniffles in the Eccles Theater here, many will do just that. Much of these feelings owes to the highly manipulative use of two very young actors who play Cusack's adolescent daughters. The eldest, Shelan O'Keefe, is the best thing about the movie. But the younger one, Grace Bednarczyk, is Strouse's go-to person when he needs a quick emotional jolt.
Sensing a hot property, the Weinstein Co. snapped up this picture over the weekend. As an antidote to the Bush administration's determination to keep images of grief over Iraq out of the media, the film may work at the boxoffice as a political statement. In theory though, shouldn't this movie be about any war and any family's loss? The marketing campaign may have to be as manipulative as the movie itself if the distributor is going to convince adult audiences they need a good weep.
Instead of creating an air of normalcy before news of the tragedy breaks, Strouse allows the film to open with a sense of melancholy, loss and anger. One can rationalize this approach, but the film never undergoes a dramatic tonal shift to reflect the impact of unbearable news.
Stanley Phillips' (Cusack) sullenness while his wife is deployed to Iraq, you later learn, is due to the fact the spouses are U.S. Army through and through but Stanley was forced out of the service due to bad eyesight. He fakes good cheer as manager of a large Midwestern housing supply store, but at home he is often silent and overly stern with his kids, Heidi (O'Keefe), 12, and Dawn (Bednarczyk), 8.
Then an Army officer and chaplain knock on the door one morning to inform him that Sgt. Grace Anne Phillips has been killed in Iraq. Stanley goes into shock, which doesn't look all that different from his demeanor the night before. That afternoon, he gathers the family in the living room to break the news -- only he can't. He seeks a delaying tactic by suggesting a dinner out. Heidi points out it is only 4 o'clock.
The remainder of the movie is one delaying tactic after another. Dad suggests an impromptu driving trip to a theme park in Florida. En route, he makes an impromptu visit to his mom's home for an encounter with his unemployed anti-war brother (Alessandro Nivola). A stop at a motel is interrupted by an impromptu middle-of-the-night departure.
All of these "impromptu" incidents are meant to resonate with the sense of loss that such a death brings. Most have a symbolic purpose as well, such as getting the girls' ears pieced at such an early age -- i.e., the premature loss of childhood. Yet these incidents are as blatant as they are bland. The filmmaker's scheme is writ so large on the screen as to provoke embarrassment rather than grief.
The mind starts to wander to little irritating details. When the girls climb back and forth between the front and back seats of the family SUV, you wonder what kind of responsible father would allow his children not to wear seatbelts. The most egregious devise has Stanley constantly calling the home answering machine to hear his wife's voice.
When the movie finally must resolve the dad's prolonged dilemma, half way through the pivotal scene Strouse allows Max Richter's sappy music to drown out the dialogue. The button-pushing music is accompanied by a washed-out look in Jean-Louis Bompoint's cinematography that is apparently meant to give the film true grit. Like all of these strategies, these only underscore the film's lack of true depth.
GRACE IS GONE
The Weinstein Co.
Plum Pictures and New Crime Productions in association with Hart/Lunsford Pictures
Credits:
Writer/director: James C. Strouse
Producers: John Cusack, Grace Loh, Galt Niederhoffer, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Celine Rattray
Executive producers: Paul Bernstein, Reagan Silber, Jai Stefan, Todd Traina
Director of photography: Jean-Louis Bompoint
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Max Richter
Costume designer: Ha Nguyen
Editor: Joe Klotz
Cast:
Stanley Phillips: John Cusack
Heidi: Shelan O'Keefe
Dawn: Gracie Bednarczyk
John: Alessandro Nivola
Running time -- 92 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- "Grace Is Gone" is not a dishonest film for you sense the fledgling filmmaker's sincere desire to deal with grief, the natural outcome of war. But the grief in writer-director James C. Strouse's "Grace" is so heavily manufactured that everything rings hollow. In John Cusack, Strouse has one of the screen's more versatile leading men. Yet Cusack seems strangely remote in a surprisingly one-note performance that requires the audience to supply the emotions.
From the sounds of sniffles in the Eccles Theater here, many will do just that. Much of these feelings owes to the highly manipulative use of two very young actors who play Cusack's adolescent daughters. The eldest, Shelan O'Keefe, is the best thing about the movie. But the younger one, Grace Bednarczyk, is Strouse's go-to person when he needs a quick emotional jolt.
Sensing a hot property, the Weinstein Co. snapped up this picture over the weekend. As an antidote to the Bush administration's determination to keep images of grief over Iraq out of the media, the film may work at the boxoffice as a political statement. In theory though, shouldn't this movie be about any war and any family's loss? The marketing campaign may have to be as manipulative as the movie itself if the distributor is going to convince adult audiences they need a good weep.
Instead of creating an air of normalcy before news of the tragedy breaks, Strouse allows the film to open with a sense of melancholy, loss and anger. One can rationalize this approach, but the film never undergoes a dramatic tonal shift to reflect the impact of unbearable news.
Stanley Phillips' (Cusack) sullenness while his wife is deployed to Iraq, you later learn, is due to the fact the spouses are U.S. Army through and through but Stanley was forced out of the service due to bad eyesight. He fakes good cheer as manager of a large Midwestern housing supply store, but at home he is often silent and overly stern with his kids, Heidi (O'Keefe), 12, and Dawn (Bednarczyk), 8.
Then an Army officer and chaplain knock on the door one morning to inform him that Sgt. Grace Anne Phillips has been killed in Iraq. Stanley goes into shock, which doesn't look all that different from his demeanor the night before. That afternoon, he gathers the family in the living room to break the news -- only he can't. He seeks a delaying tactic by suggesting a dinner out. Heidi points out it is only 4 o'clock.
The remainder of the movie is one delaying tactic after another. Dad suggests an impromptu driving trip to a theme park in Florida. En route, he makes an impromptu visit to his mom's home for an encounter with his unemployed anti-war brother (Alessandro Nivola). A stop at a motel is interrupted by an impromptu middle-of-the-night departure.
All of these "impromptu" incidents are meant to resonate with the sense of loss that such a death brings. Most have a symbolic purpose as well, such as getting the girls' ears pieced at such an early age -- i.e., the premature loss of childhood. Yet these incidents are as blatant as they are bland. The filmmaker's scheme is writ so large on the screen as to provoke embarrassment rather than grief.
The mind starts to wander to little irritating details. When the girls climb back and forth between the front and back seats of the family SUV, you wonder what kind of responsible father would allow his children not to wear seatbelts. The most egregious devise has Stanley constantly calling the home answering machine to hear his wife's voice.
When the movie finally must resolve the dad's prolonged dilemma, half way through the pivotal scene Strouse allows Max Richter's sappy music to drown out the dialogue. The button-pushing music is accompanied by a washed-out look in Jean-Louis Bompoint's cinematography that is apparently meant to give the film true grit. Like all of these strategies, these only underscore the film's lack of true depth.
GRACE IS GONE
The Weinstein Co.
Plum Pictures and New Crime Productions in association with Hart/Lunsford Pictures
Credits:
Writer/director: James C. Strouse
Producers: John Cusack, Grace Loh, Galt Niederhoffer, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Celine Rattray
Executive producers: Paul Bernstein, Reagan Silber, Jai Stefan, Todd Traina
Director of photography: Jean-Louis Bompoint
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Max Richter
Costume designer: Ha Nguyen
Editor: Joe Klotz
Cast:
Stanley Phillips: John Cusack
Heidi: Shelan O'Keefe
Dawn: Gracie Bednarczyk
John: Alessandro Nivola
Running time -- 92 minutes
No MPAA rating...
From the sounds of sniffles in the Eccles Theater here, many will do just that. Much of these feelings owes to the highly manipulative use of two very young actors who play Cusack's adolescent daughters. The eldest, Shelan O'Keefe, is the best thing about the movie. But the younger one, Grace Bednarczyk, is Strouse's go-to person when he needs a quick emotional jolt.
Sensing a hot property, the Weinstein Co. snapped up this picture over the weekend. As an antidote to the Bush administration's determination to keep images of grief over Iraq out of the media, the film may work at the boxoffice as a political statement. In theory though, shouldn't this movie be about any war and any family's loss? The marketing campaign may have to be as manipulative as the movie itself if the distributor is going to convince adult audiences they need a good weep.
Instead of creating an air of normalcy before news of the tragedy breaks, Strouse allows the film to open with a sense of melancholy, loss and anger. One can rationalize this approach, but the film never undergoes a dramatic tonal shift to reflect the impact of unbearable news.
Stanley Phillips' (Cusack) sullenness while his wife is deployed to Iraq, you later learn, is due to the fact the spouses are U.S. Army through and through but Stanley was forced out of the service due to bad eyesight. He fakes good cheer as manager of a large Midwestern housing supply store, but at home he is often silent and overly stern with his kids, Heidi (O'Keefe), 12, and Dawn (Bednarczyk), 8.
Then an Army officer and chaplain knock on the door one morning to inform him that Sgt. Grace Anne Phillips has been killed in Iraq. Stanley goes into shock, which doesn't look all that different from his demeanor the night before. That afternoon, he gathers the family in the living room to break the news -- only he can't. He seeks a delaying tactic by suggesting a dinner out. Heidi points out it is only 4 o'clock.
The remainder of the movie is one delaying tactic after another. Dad suggests an impromptu driving trip to a theme park in Florida. En route, he makes an impromptu visit to his mom's home for an encounter with his unemployed anti-war brother (Alessandro Nivola). A stop at a motel is interrupted by an impromptu middle-of-the-night departure.
All of these "impromptu" incidents are meant to resonate with the sense of loss that such a death brings. Most have a symbolic purpose as well, such as getting the girls' ears pieced at such an early age -- i.e., the premature loss of childhood. Yet these incidents are as blatant as they are bland. The filmmaker's scheme is writ so large on the screen as to provoke embarrassment rather than grief.
The mind starts to wander to little irritating details. When the girls climb back and forth between the front and back seats of the family SUV, you wonder what kind of responsible father would allow his children not to wear seatbelts. The most egregious devise has Stanley constantly calling the home answering machine to hear his wife's voice.
When the movie finally must resolve the dad's prolonged dilemma, half way through the pivotal scene Strouse allows Max Richter's sappy music to drown out the dialogue. The button-pushing music is accompanied by a washed-out look in Jean-Louis Bompoint's cinematography that is apparently meant to give the film true grit. Like all of these strategies, these only underscore the film's lack of true depth.
GRACE IS GONE
The Weinstein Co.
Plum Pictures and New Crime Productions in association with Hart/Lunsford Pictures
Credits:
Writer/director: James C. Strouse
Producers: John Cusack, Grace Loh, Galt Niederhoffer, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Celine Rattray
Executive producers: Paul Bernstein, Reagan Silber, Jai Stefan, Todd Traina
Director of photography: Jean-Louis Bompoint
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Max Richter
Costume designer: Ha Nguyen
Editor: Joe Klotz
Cast:
Stanley Phillips: John Cusack
Heidi: Shelan O'Keefe
Dawn: Gracie Bednarczyk
John: Alessandro Nivola
Running time -- 92 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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