The setup is simple: An ordinary Middle American man gets word his career soldier wife, Grace, has been killed in Iraq, and must break the news to their two daughters. Finding he can't do it straight out, he takes the girls on an extended road trip during which their suspicions mount as to what's going on, until he finds the right time, place and manner in which to tell them.

The man, Stanley Phillips (John Cusack), is not a prepossessing fellow. A manager at a big box store, he's bespectacled, drably dressed and overall a soft character, hardly one to take on anything challenging. His 12-year-old daughter Heidi (Shelan O'Keefe) seems bright and observant, while 8-year-old Dawn (Grace Bednarczyk) is more interested in just having fun.

With little ado other than a curious opening scene in which Stanley is the only man at a soldiers' wives gathering at which the women gossip about how hot the sex was the night before their husbands shipped out, Stanley receives a "we regret to inform you" visit from two Army reps.

Numb, he sits his girls down to talk, then abruptly pulls back from the task at hand, announcing instead that they can skip school for a few days while they all drive down to a favorite destination, Enchanted Gardens. In addition to lacking courage, Stanley is in denial.

A brief visit with Stanley's layabout brother John (an amusing Alessandro Nivola) provides the opportunity for an airing of political positions. John rants on about the war and a lying government, trying to goad the girls not to blindly accept their father's dutiful, unquestioning patriotism. Much as John may rep the filmmakers' p.o.v., he's scarcely let off the hook, being portrayed as a freeloader who, at 32, is still trying to decide about grad school.

John learns the truth about Grace but reluctantly obeys Stanley's request not to tell the girls. Heidi almost finds out on her own, however, when she phones a school official who speaks to her in exaggeratedly sympathetic tones. As the journey progresses, Heidi seems to mature and deepen, to move from child to young adult before one's eyes, a real tribute to O'Keefe's wonderful performance.

After passing through a procession of junk food/conglom retail landscapes clearly designed to stress the dreary sameness of much of contempo America, the family arrives at the Florida amusement park destination, after which Stanley must finally do the inevitable deed. Even though the climactic scene, set on a beach, is not well-framed, shot or cut, it still carries a mighty emotional charge.

As Hollywood films have generally done when treating social issues, "Grace Is Gone" appeals much more effectively to the heart than to the head. Philosophically, it steers clear of issues relating to the war, assiduously avoiding ideology and complexity. In doing so, it succeeds on its own simple terms and looks to be acceptable both to liberal and conservative viewers as it critiques the war while honoring the troops.

Cusack, who doubles as a producer, jettisons his usual smart-guy persona to effectively enter the skin of an essentially weak man who has never analyzed himself or reassessed his beliefs, and, when the crunch comes, admits to himself that he's always relied upon his wife to know what to do. Performance may be praised as a major change of pace, but it seems a limited one in a small range.

Pic's production values are just passable, its look mundane. At the projection caught, some of the colors, notably the greens and reds, were unrealistically intense, while quality of the images was thin.

Camera (color), Jean-Louis Bompoint; editor, Joe Klotz; music, Max Richter; production designer, Susan Block; art director, Lissette Schettini; set decorator, Tanja Deshida; costume designer, Ha Nguyen; sound (Dolby Digital), David Obermeyer; sound supervisor/re-recording mixer, Tom Efinger; sound designer, Rusty Dunne; line producer, Demetra Diamantopoulos; associate producers, Carina Alves, Doug Dearth, Wes Jones; assistant director, Curtis A. Smith Jr.; casting, Pascal, Tenner, Rudnicke. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (competing), Jan. 22, 2007. Running time: 92 MIN.