GRACE (2018) Brief Movie Review

Hello Readers 

Today’s post is to share about the movie Grace (2018). I watched it on Amazon prime earlier this year.

The movie currently has only three stars on Amazon reviews and a 5.7 on IMBD. 

 I give the movie an A minus.

Amazon summary:

“Charlie Ellison is a once famous writer suffering from writer’s block With the book advance spent, his agent and best friend, Bernie, sends him Dawn, a belligerent young woman, in order to inspire and check on him – but she has her own ideas.”

My summary:

Dawn is a young writer and desperate for work. She ends up working for an author, Charlie Ellison, who is in a serious funk with writer’s block. Dawn starts by cleaning his disaster of a kitchen and he detests her presence at first. As the movie progresses, both characters are changed and Dawn’s honesty and spunk is just what is needed to help Ellison slowly find his groove. 

NOTE:

I try not to have too many spoilers in my takeaways, but I do have revealing info – so stop here if you don’t want details.

TOP TAKEAWAYS

1. When Dawn first arrives and is challenged by Ellison, her spunky and active response is just what this author needed. A timid assistant would not have helped him! He needed tough truth.

2. The transformation of Ellison as he emerges from his rut is believable.

3. A friendship forms between Dawn and Ellison and possibly has a slight romantic element – but I felt it was more of human-to-human connecting while both were in a needy place. Dawn was in need of a weekly paycheck, just starting as  a writer, and her best friend “has her back” – Ellison was in need of motivation and focus, he was an established writer, and he had a best friend (also his agent) who was using him.

4. Halfway through the movie, we have Dawn and Ellison connecting with depth – on equal planes – and it is just so beautiful. Ellison’s agent walks in and mentions Dawn’s paycheck and the entire mood changes. The business side of their relationship brings a realistic thud! 

5. One favorite part of Grace was when Dawn dusted off Ellison’s dusty Porsche (stored in the garage) and then took it out for a drive.
It was joyful and connected to plot (successful author has possessions that can neither motivate nor fill intrinsic needs)

Also – I used to have a Porsche analogy for my own life.
There were seasons in my life when I was in “pause mode” with my career – still busy and grateful for every season God blessed me with – but I actually told my spouse that I felt like an unused Porsche parked in the garage with a cover on! So when that scene arrived there was a personal connection. 

 

6) The actress that played Dawn, Katie Cassidy, had some strengths and powerful performances. However, she fell flat with a few scenes and especially could have used some coaching for one of her most important scenes. The time she was in the kitchen and provided an analogy about clay and writing. The potential brilliance and impact that scene could have had was impeded because she couldn’t inflect, change her face, or use her body to let us feel the message with that powerful analogy. The other two main actors, Matthew Lillard and Tate Donovan, performed their parts quite well.

7) If you are a writer, then this movie might offer you a little encouragement and enrichment. For example, Beem Weeks just posted about writers doing research in his post “Writing What You Know” (Here) and his post reminded me of a scene in this movie.

The scene was when author Ellison became passionate about why he kept so many books in his library. Ellison told Dawn that the books were for doing research for his future book projects.
Ahhhh – so nice – and I have a good amount of books for that very reason. And a reminder (as Beem noted) that many times authors write what they WANT to know or what they just want to explore.

 

 

8) At times Tate Donovan’s character was creepy and reminded me of a mild version (very mild) of Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

9) The movie Grace had good pacing and flow. The ending has the forced ribbon and smile –  yet at the same time – it was realistic because it was an example of recovering and rising up from the ashes (or funk). It also reminded me that sometimes changes or “the helpful break” we need in life can come from unexpected sources. our way when we least expect it.

10) The story was memorable. It was hopeful.  I felt like I journeyed with Dawn and Ellison. They were both needy yet in such contrasting ways – and then they both helped each other greatly.

This reminded me how we need solitude and alone time but also – at times – might absolutely need someone else to be part of our life to help us heal, progress, or just get out of a rut!

Closing Questions 

• Have you seen this movie?
• If you end up watching it please let me know your thoughts. 

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IMBD https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6163142/

Amazon Prime Here

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