Swearing Off Cusack

That's it, I can't take it anymore. John Cusack is one of my all time favorite actors--top five, at least. I can't think of a single thing he's done that I couldn't/haven't watched multiple times (which is why I've avoided a few of his projects--like Max, 'cuz I don't want to feel any sympathy for that particular failed Austrian artist depicted in the film, and 1408 because I don't want to enjoy that kind of movie). But I'm going to have to stop watching his movies now, that's all there is to it.

Well, maybe I'm being rash--maybe I can just swear off all films with him and kids, that might be the way to go. If he's a record shop owner, a hitman with a crisis of conscience, a high school kid sturggling to make the team and get the girl (okay, okay, he's probably not going to make anymore movies like that) and so on--I can take it. But when he's a dad--like in The Martian Child or Grace is Gone (the last two things I've seen him in)...forget it, I just can't do it, I just don't like crying at movies that much.

Grace is Gone is not a great movie, in many ways, it's not even a really good movie. But it has three stellar performances--those by Cusack and the two girls who play his daughters. Shélan O'Keefe and Gracie Bdenarczyk are so good it's scary.

The movie's about the human cost of war, the grief, the loss, the lives. And it's just gut-wrenching. The performances of the three leads are perfect. Subtle, nuanced, careful, and...perfect. Can't think of another word. This movie could be a rival for the Turing test--if you're not moved by Cusack (much less O'Keefe) throughout, or by any of the three in the film's climax, you're a machine. Simple as that.

I should also add that Clint Eastwood's simple score is deceptively so, and captures the essence of the film in a way too few scores do. I think this is the first time Eastwood's written for a film he hasn't directed, but it proves that any time he wants to stop acting and just sit in front of a piano, he can keep busy.