Rabbit Hole

Release Year: 2010

Director: John Cameron Mitchell

Review:  Sometimes you switch on a film to escape. To forget about life troubles and live vicariously in a world that’s more pleasant than your own. ‘Rabbit Hole’ is not one of these movies. A couple has lost their only child, and grief is straining their family. It’s a sobering premise, and certainly one that has been done before. So why put yourself through watching others pain?

I’m not a fan of a movie that wallows in misery. I don’t like to be depressed by a movie for no other reason than for it to make me feel bad. ‘Rabbit Hole’ is not that movie. Yes, its tough to watch, but it never comes across as gloomy.  It’ takes a hard look at the bereavement process and the emotional stress it causes, but does so without coming across as hopeless. No one is the ‘bad guy’, both spouses have their problems but it is clear they love each other. So many times in a movie with marital strife as the focal point one of the two partners are demonized. It’s not done here, and that’s a key point. This isn’t a movie about a marriage falling apart, even if it’s the consequence It’s about how normal loving people can overcome an overwhelming loss.

Director John Cameron Mitchell knew what he wanted to convey in this film, and stayed on track. It’s not a big movie and its not trying to be.Mitchell crafted a well made, tightly packaged film with few flaws. The acting by Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman was perfect. Without being over the top, they imbue their characters with subtle, yet powerful emotional turbulence.It would be all to easy for the intense, emotionally charged conflicts to come off as over the top, but are instead executed with restraint. This is what impressed me most. Every time I thought the film was going to push too far and lose me in a wave of drama, it reels itself in and roots itself down into a territory that is believable.

What Eckhart and Kidman’s characters go through are reflections of pain in which many of us have been through or witnessed someone go through. It is a profound look at loss and how it affects everything in life. It may not be feel-good movie of the year, but it’s rewarding in its honesty.

Rating: 4/5