Rabbit Hole (12A) 91 minutes 2011

No parent should ever have to bury their child. It's against nature. It's too hard, too traumatic, too much. But, that is exactly what Rabbit Hole, based on David Lindsay-Abaire's 2005 play of the same name, asks of parents, Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) Corbett after the heart-breaking loss of their 4 year old son.

Becca and Howie deal with their core-shaking grief in contrasting ways. Becca, unable to cope, simply closes up and shuts down; refusing to believe, refusing to accept, refusing to move on. At therapy, her anger bubbles over; "If God needed another angel, then why didn't he just make one", she explodes to another grief-stricken parent.

Howie struggles with demons; of his own; broken nights watching videos on his phone, cherishing his memories to somehow keep them alive while at the same time desperately trying to inch forward with his life. Becca's mother Nat (Dianne Wiest) and pregnant sister, Izzy, (Tammy Blanchard) look impotently on, their advice ignored, their help thrown back in their faces. As Becca and Howie's crumbling relationship nears its point of collapse, fate once again intervenes in a chance meeting with the innocent killer, a young, cartoon-drawing scientist whom Becca somehow takes to her heart.

The characterisation is marvellous, the powerful interplay of the key protagonists giving the movie its sense of power and direction. Kidman is back to her brilliant best, taut tense and brittle as cut glass. Inwardly imploding, she loses control; at her mother, at her husband at anything in her way. Eckhart is her match, his heart on his sleeve but he too is desperate and lost seeking comfort in therapy, in smoking pot, finally breaking down with the dog. “I can’t do this anymore”; he sobs to his wife. Both Wiest and Blanchard impress; the one, carrying her own emotional burden, resilient and supportive, the other, long suffering and resentful as the disappointing, under achieving sister. Most impressive of all is a simply breath-taking cameo from Jason (Miles Teller) the story-writing student.

Director, John Cameron Mitchell oversees a well-constructed, thoughtful and challenging script; Jason, riddled with guilt, admits he was driving over the limit but his response - “I was probably doing 31 or 32" - is not what we expect. Kidman's mother asked whether the pain ever goes replies; "No," "you carry it around like a brick". Despite its dark subject, Rabbit Hole avoids the dual pitfalls; neither overly dark nor gushingly sentimental, it is tasteful and balanced.

Verdict
Beautifully crafted, wonderfully well-acted and poignantly told. 9/10.

Dick Morgan

February 2011