Searing, Sublime And Surprisingly Subtle--An Unforgettable Tale Of Grief And Survival
When I heard that John Cameron Mitchell, the mad genius behind the explosive "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," (which he wrote, directed and starred in) was taking the directing chores on an upscale adaptation of a Pulitzer Prize winning play--I thought to myself, this could be interesting. Mitchell, however, shows incredible restraint with "Rabbit Hole"--a searing drama about loss and survival. While opening up the play with this film version, he really didn't have to stray too far from the exquisitely moving source material. Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire was on hand to bring his own words to the big screen, and Mitchell puts his trust in those words! But beyond that, a cast led by Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart lend this piece a real life urgency and poignancy. Although infused with sadness, "Rabbit Hole" achieves its quiet power in depicting our choice to live--even when all our instincts tell us otherwise.
In short, "Rabbit Hole" is a survivor's story. Set eight months...
Sorrow Beyond Measure
"Rabbit Hole," based on the play with the same name by David Lindsay-Abaire and directed by John Mitchell Cameron, is an almost two hour insightful commentary on grief, more specifically the grief of two parents who have lost their four-year-old child because of an accident. He chased his dog into the street and ran in front of a car. The film opens eight months after the accident. Howie (Aaron Eckhart) and Becca (Nicole Kidman) are the parents consumed with their loss. They try practically everything-- going to a support group for parents who have lost children, getting rid of their son's clothes, letting a relative (at first) keep the dog, putting their house on the market for sale-- in an effort to get through what has to be the tragedy of all tragedies for parents, the loss of a child. Of course the question on every viewer's mind is whether Howie and Becca's marriage-- they obviously love each other very much-- will survive the horror they find themselves in.
The film...
Outstanding performances in a moving story about the strains of dealing with grief and loss
Rabbit Hole is not the sort of movie that people generally pick as something to watch as it deals, in fairly unflinching terms, with an issue most people hope they'll never face: what happens to people after the loss of a child. It is, I think, a good thing then that Rabbit Hole has some big-name actors - Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest - who may attract people's attention to the film, because it is very much worth seeing.
Becca (Kidman) and Howie (Eckhart) Corbett are a married couple in pain due to the loss of their only child, Danny, who died eight months ago when he ran out into the street and got hit by a car. They're attempting to cope but not doing very well at it, and in fact their attempts to cope are driving them apart. Becca's way of coping is in trying to escape from her grief and from the memories, avoiding anything that reminds her of Danny, while Howie clings to his grief and to everything that does remind him of Danny. And if these strains were...
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