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Getting Grace, directed, co-written, and starring Daniel Roebuck, is a superb, sweet, and dark-edged family comedy about life and death. As of late, the realm of family comedies has been missing a well-executed sinister edge to it, especially due to the challenge of remaining lighthearted whilst also addressing serious themes (even master directors struggle). Getting Grace is Roebuck’s feature film debut as a director, and while the movie has some pacing issues, Roebuck is able to strike the correct balance between comedy and drama, which is profoundly refreshing.
Roebuck is Bill Jankowski, a rather unhappy funeral director who seems to not value life as much as it is. Bill does well in his career, but beyond that, he does not seem to do so well. He goes on to meet Grace (Madelyn Dundon) a quirky teenager suffering from cancer who has an obsession with learning everything about funerals. And when I say everything, I mean everything that occurs before, during, and after a funeral. Bill is not entirely enthusiastic when it comes to talking to young girls, especially considering that Grace is not a client, and Bill is a poor communicator with anyone who is not in a mourning state. He wants her gone. But Grace won’t leave. She is determined to learn the process. She wants to understand who Bill is, and why he is such a withdrawn man. This is for her pending life project, and discovering this information is somewhat of an ultimate goal for Grace.
Aside from Grace, everyone is hoping that this ‘Bill’ business is not meant to be her last anything. Venus (Marsha Dietlein), Grace’s mother, wishes her to continue her chemotherapy and radiation and to keep battling till the very end. The members of the cancer support group, including Reverend Osburn (Duane Whitaker), would prefer that she stays a little longer because she is so good at nurturing the other cancer kids in the group (which she is in charge of, sort of). And Ron (Dana Ashbrook), a paranormal writer and, as I assume, self-help guru (not sure who Ron is in this film), would definitely want Grace to live longer so she can attempt whatever it is that he does. Grace has plenty of supporters.
For Grace, getting her mom, Venus, to date Bill improves matters because she gets to go out with a cancer patient Doug. And she gets to make some respectably intriguing arrangements for Audrey’s funeral with her mother and Bill. Yes, Bill can help, but only if the obnoxious Audrey’s mother gives him permission to ignore her daughter. Even if the mother is completely ignorant of the fact, there is little to no hope for the kid. At the same time, Doug and his mother are on a totally different end. They need a break, don’t they?
Getting Grace takes its time to get to where it’s going. I understand it’s a two-hour film, but I feel like much of that time could be cut without impacting the overall story. Five minutes of trimming could make this movie far easier to sit through. It seems to me that wherever their focus happened to be, it certainly wasn’t pacing.
Inspiration family films with a touching story tend to exclude unnecessary themes, such as the premise of death. The creators of Getting Grace deftly skirt the edges of happy endings by including realistic notions, like people dying from cancer, kids dying far before they’re supposed to, and a funeral home having an entire room dedicated to preparing corpses for viewing. While it is disheartening to think about, it reflects a harsh reality that should not be ignored. This is the background in which Jeff Lewis and Roebuck give grace to the world of cinema. It’s so dark you can’t help but wonder if your hope is misplaced.
At the very least, it’s powerfully uplifting. The performance that makes the film work stems from both of those aspects, plus Madelyn Dundon’s acting.
Dundon is memorably amusing as Grace, which is the character’s name in the film. She is funny, she is charming, and she has way too much chemistry with nearly every actor on the set. The gag where she is putting on a fake British accent becomes irritating after the fourth time she does it, but at the very least, she is not hated for it. That’s just part of what she is. One way or another, you want her to win.
As always, Roebuck is great as Bill too. He understands how to respond, for example, to the more silly things Grace does, such as a scene when she, and the other cancer children from the support group, commandeer a mourning old man’s funeral and make it into a party. He even knows how to deal with the serious drama stuff. When you see him, you pay attention to how he looks and how Grace’s mother Venus has personal problems that she knows nothing about and doesn’t know how to face. Bill remembers some episodes of his life where he drank only too much alcohol. I wish to include a brief reminder of the compilation of scenes of him talking about why he keeps away from alcohol. One word for it: devastating. Great stuff.
The rest of the cast complements the film well. Especially, newcomer Alexa Mcfillin who plays Audrey, excels in her very first movie. And Duane Whitaker is, quietly, pretty funny as Reverend Osburn. All the other kids are great too. Also, Diane Wagner as Bill’s sister Mary does provide an interesting contrasting view of the Jankowski family. Mary is more social than Bill and she is also a funeral director.
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