Grace Is Gone (2007)

"Grace is Gone" - yet another film that touches the hearts of many audiences. This is a simple but meaningful film that depicts how a father, after learning the news of his wife's death, struggles to find the right time and the right place to break the sad news to his two beloved daughters, Heidi and Dawn. 

Breaking news of death to the closest family members has never been the easiest thing to do. In fact, it is the hardest and the most heart-breaking experience ever. In this film, Stanley Phillips had to go through the grief of losing his beloved wife, Grace alone for quite some time as he could not bring himself to disclose the news to his two daughters. During his grief alone, he tried very hard to deny himself of Grace's passing. Initially, when he suggested to his daughters that they would visit the Enchanted Garden on a road trip even though it was very far away, it was believed that maybe he needed more time to think of a right way to disclose the news to his daughters and going on a road trip for several days would allow him more time to think before they reached their final destination. Not only that, he could also possibly be using this opportunity to deny the fact that he had lost Grace by temporarily focusing on his daughters and their road trip. Besides, going to Enchanted Garden may be a wonderful idea as his daughters were dying to visit the amusement park. So, maybe that could be a better place to reveal the sad news to them since that place was a familiar and a safe place which brought them happy memories.

Along the road trip, Stanley would constantly call home to hear Grace's voice over the answering machine and every time he would leave a message for her regarding him and the kids. He did this as if Grace has never left and he wanted so much to continue talking to her. Besides that, there were many things that happened during the road trip which Stanley had been doing to remind himself that nothing was changed and everything could still be the same. Before reaching their final destination at the Enchanted Garden, Stanley and the girls had stopped by their grandmother's house, shopping mall and a motel. At the shopping mall, Stanley bought Heidi and Dawn each a pretty dress and he even allowed them to pierce their ears (something which they were not allowed to do until they were 13 years old). This could possibly showed two things: One, Stanley was trying his best to make sure the girls were happy by fulfilling their wishes before breaking their hearts again later when he revealed their mother's death. Two, it could be that Stanley was trying to show his daughters that the three of them could still have fun on their own even without their mother in the future. But yes, Stanley was indeed a great father. Even though he did not tell Heidi and Dawn about their mother immediately, it did not mean that he was being coward or being a mean dad. He just simply did not know how to tell it because he was very much concerned with their feelings. Besides, the incident where Heidi had secretly smoked with a random teenager at the motel also showed that Stanley was a wise dad. Normally when a father sees his daughter smoking as an underage, I would think that he would immediately be very mad at her and could even ground her. But I was surprised at what Stanley did to Heidi instead in the film. It shocked me a little when I watched Stanley bought two boxes of cigarettes to share with Heidi. But later it occurred to me that what he did was actually more educational than simply yelling and grounding a child. By offering Heidi a cigarette directly, it allowed Heidi to learn her mistakes from a familiar and a safe person rather than letting her experiencing it through a stranger or any negative friends in the future. Also, as a teenager, the more she was scolded and yelled at for something she was not supposed to try or do, it would make her even more curious to want to experience the thing. Hence, what Stanley did was actually a great example for every parent out there, even though it could be bizarre for some people (letting your daughter smoke with you?!)

Like I said earlier, Enchanted Garden was an amusement park which both Heidi and Dawn were dying to visit. However, they could not have the chance to visit this place again earlier because both their parents were busy with work and they were also occupied with school as well. However, the thought of bringing the girls back to this place as they wished did not only provide a great opportunity for Stanley to reveal the news to them, it also served as a very meaningful purpose in this film. Due to the fact that Heidi and Dawn still did not know about the passing of their mother, this road trip to Enchanted Garden provided them a chance to experience a ONE LAST TRIP where they could all still be happy and enjoy the world with the mindset that their mother was still alive.