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The Weinstein Company has apparently bumped the release date of Grace is Gone from October to December, and our favorite hyper-reactionary conservative film blog, taking a cue from the New York Post, says it’s a victory in the War on Terror.
In this post on his NYP movie blog, Lou Lumenick speculates first that the move might have something to do with the fact that the film was rejected from the New York Film Festival, which would have ostensibly given TWC a medium-profile platform from which to roll out the film in October. Lumenick (who is enough of a fan of Grace that his endorsement appears at the top of the film’s poster) then tosses out the possibility that Harvey Weinstein may have bumped Grace in reaction to “the soft opening numbers” of Paul Haggis’ In the Valley of Elah. It’s that suggestion that engenders this quip from Libertas: “Wouldn’t it be nice to think that every studio holding some vanity pro-Al Queda movie is right-now-as-I-write-this trembling at the inevitability of the red ink coming?”
Maybe that would be “nice,” but the thing is, Grace is about as far from a “vanity pro-Al Queda movie” as you can get.
As much it’s frustrating to see that kind of totally off-the-mark, knee-jerk rhetoric bandied about by someone who obviously hasn’t seen the film in question, this is really Lumenick’s fault for dangling the bait that Grace is “similarly themed” to Elah. I haven’t seen Elah, but I have seen Grace, and I can vouch for the fact that it’s an extremely pro-military film. It’s basically a character study of a middle-American, working-class dad (played by Cusack) who is devastated by the loss of his soldier wife, but who refuses to abandon his faith in the war she fought and died in. This actually works to the detriment of the movie, not because supporting the war is inherently bad, but because Cusack’s character doesn’t change that much.
Ultimately, I don’t really care when Grace is Gone is released, because I don’t think it’s very good, but I would wager a guess that Harvey & Co. just needed a little extra time to build an Oscar campaign around Cusack. Judging by Weinstein’s comments back in January, that’s why he bought the film in the first place.
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FilmCouch #91: City of Ember and Body of Lies
CITY OF EMBER and BODY OF LIES, which one is subversive and which one is fluff? The answer may surprise you.
Although not totally related to your current post, I just wanted to let you know of a ground breaking new anti-war film that is opening this weekend in London.
We need all the help we can to get this film out there and seen.
IRAQ ‘S POST-SADDAM FEATURE AHLAAM TO BE RELEASED IN CINEMAS ACROSS THE UK FROM 2ND NOVEMBER 2007.
AHLAAM (Dream, Mohamed Al-Daradji, UK/Iraq/Netherlands, 2006)
Based on true stories, Ahlaam takes us on an incredible journey, following two psychiatric patients, who escape from their mental institution in Baghdad, and a young doctor on the night US forces start their ’shock and awe’ campaign to “liberate” Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s totalitarian regime.
Ahlaam is Iraq’s second post-Saddam feature to hit the big screen. Al-Daradji’s debut feature was filmed under highly unstable conditions, with cast and crew encountering not only all kinds of technical restrictions, but being exposed to shooting, abductions, torture and imprisonment, both by insurgents and the American forces.
After attending over 75 festivals around the world and winning many respected awards, the film was selected for consideration for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards 2007 and screened to an attentive audience at the BAFTA .
For security reasons, Al-Daradji had been unable to screen the film in Baghdad. His dream to show it to his own people came true last April, with a screening at the National Theatre to over one thousand people, including cast and crew, members of Iraq’s beleaguered artistic community and government officials. They braved fears of terror attacks to attend and midway through the showing, a rumour that a minibus with explosives had been parked nearby swept the theatre. Luckily it was a false alarm. On the day of the screening, over 200 people were killed in Baghdad by insurgent attacks.
Ahlaam will be screened in much safer circumstances in the UK starting from Friday 2 November at the ICA London when a special Q&A will be held. Film is being released through Human Film and will tour around the country.
Other screenings…
HAWKHURST
KINO
7
02-Nov-07
BRADFORD
PICTUREVILLE
7
23-Nov-07
CHICHESTER
NEW PARK
2
01-Dec-07
ABERYSTWYTH
ARTS CENTRE
3
08-Dec-07
INVERNESS
EDEN COURT
2
20-Feb-08
Edinburgh Filmhouse – Edinburgh for 4 days from 7th December with Q&A
For further information on Ahlaam, please visit http://www.ahlaamthemovie.com or http://www.humanfilm.co.uk http://www.myspace.com/ahlaamthemovie or to view the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN7wAgQlsbk