Two finely nuanced performances drive this low-key character study about a Midwestern husband and father who has difficulty with his wife's death in Iraq. One is from impressive young newcomer Shelan O'Keefe, the other is by John Cusack, an actor best known for romantic comedies.
March, 2005. Minnesota father of two Stanley Phillips (Cusack) is a strict disciplinarian who's keeping a tight leash on his two young daughters, serious-minded 12-year-old Heidi (O'Keefe) and 8-year-old Dawn (Gracie Bednarczyk), while their mother, Gracie, is away fighting in Iraq. A former soldier himself who met his future wife at boot camp, Stanley votes Republican, believes U.S. armed forces are fighting in Iraq to preserve the freedoms people like his slacker liberal brother, John (Alessandro Nivola), take for granted, and expects his daughters to think the very same thing. To help him cope with Grace's absence, Stanley even drops in on a local meeting of a soldiers' wives support group, but nothing can prepare him for the one visit every soldier's spouse dreads: the one from an army captain (Doug Dearth) and chaplain (Doug James) regretfully informing him that Sergeant Grace Ann Phillips has been killed in action. Stunned by the tragic news, Stanley sits himself down in his armchair and doesn't move; he doesn't even bother to call in sick to work at the home improvement where he works as a floor manager. When Heidi and Dawn return from school, he can't find the words to tell them what has happened to their mother, so instead, they all pile into the Chevy Blazer and head out to Dave & Buster's for an early dinner. But no sooner do they arrive than a still dazed Stanley hustles them back into the car and asks them a question: Where would they most like to visit? Dawn impulsively picks Enchanted Gardens, a Florida amusement part they visited before her mother was deployed. Florida is a long way away from Minnesota, but to Dawn's delight -- and Heidi's increasing unease -- Stanley agrees, and they immediately head south. Anything to play for time and forestall the inevitable.
LONESOME JIM screenwriter James C. Strouse's directorial debut is an interesting study of a man who's not yet picking up the pieces of a shattered life, but rather fruitlessly attempting to prolong the moment before those pieces hit the floor. The strange trip Stanley embarks upon is not just for the benefit of his daughters, who he can't bear to hurt, but for himself, who can't deal with the painful fact of his wife's death for a cause he thought he accepted and Cusack's subtle performance draws out unexpected depths to his character. Aside from brother John's knee-jerk liberalism -- a valid viewpoint that's later undercut by his confused belief system that pretty much amounts to "truthiness" -- Strouse forgoes an explicit critique of the Iraq War in favor of a more universal portrait of grief and acceptance. leave a comment --Ken Fox
