We’ve all experienced loss in one way or another and we know the pain and heightened emotions you can go through while working your way through the grieving process. It can be an extremely hard thing to get through even if it isn’t you, but someone you love who is going through it.
Lionsgate has made a movie from the 2007 Tony Award-Winning and Pulitzer Prize-Winning play “Rabbit Hole.” The choice of John Cameron Mitchell as director is an odd one in my opinion. Other than some guest roles on television shows over the past 20 years, he is mostly known for directing a few independent and alternative movies such as “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “Shortbus.” As both of those films dealt with sexuality and controversial issues, it will be interesting to see what he can bring to this raw emotional drama about loss, turmoil, relationships, death and growing apart.
Married couple Howie (Aaron Eckhart) and Becca Corbett (Nicole Kidman) have the perfect life and the perfect family — all of which comes crashing down when their son Danny (Phoenix List) is killed by a car in front of their house. Becca, a business woman-turned-houswife has to try to find a new way to define herself and her life after losing her son. In the midst of all of the well-meaning family and friends, she finds an odd comfort in a unique friendship with Jason (Miles Teller) a young comic-book artist who is actually the driver of the car that killed her son. Howie, on the other hand, has retreated into his memory of the past, watching old videos of his son every day and the only other place he finds solace is in a group-therapy session with others who have experienced similar tragedies. The biggest question is whether their relationship and marriage withstand the pain they are both holding onto or will this be the beginning of the end of them as a couple?
“Rabbit Hole” has already opened up at a few film festivals to critical acclaim and had a standing ovation at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. It is being said that this film is the return to form of Nicole Kidman. While Aaron Eckhart is known mostly for his appearance in “The Dark Knight” as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, I have enjoyed a lot of his work in much smaller films such as “Towelhead,” “Thank You for Smoking,” “The Core” and “Erin Brockovich” and I think he is a greatly talented man. This team up of these two awesome actors could prove to be a hit at the box office, although dramas rarely prove as lucrative as comedy or action movies.
This movie is definitely going to be an emotional roller-coaster ride. I like the fact that it seems to mesh the harsh reality of a couple that lost their child while also dispersing just the right amount of dark humor. Having experienced quite a bit of loss in my lifetime already, I really do know the wide range of emotions one goes through in the grieving process and it makes it very easy for me to identify with the main characters. I think the realistic depiction of what people go through when dealing with loss will be a touching thing to see, as movie-goers usually are fed clichés when it comes to death and loss. So if it is as good as the trailer makes it look, I will be seeing it as it opens in my local theater.
“Rabbit Hole” — which also stars Dianne Wiest, Tammy Blanchard, Sandra Oh and Mike Doyle — is opening in a limited release starting Dec. 17.
. . .
Follow Adam Poynter on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CCWGGuy.
Oh Adam, this looks like a tough watch. But if it helps in the rising, in the recovery, it could be great to see. Nice review. I’m feeling for you.
Thanks Bev, I am a fan of emotional movies and I feel this one alot, lost a immediate family member around a year ago and effects are still being felt.