RABBIT HOLE

Pepe's View:
I have to say at the outset that I love almost every movie Nicole Kidman chooses to be involved with.  This time she is the Producer and the lead actress - a combination to send me to the theatre with high expectations.
I had seen "Rabbit Hole" performed on stage a few years ago and so knew the plot well.  The fact that David Lindsay-Adaire adapted the screenplay from his own play was yet another reason to raise my expectations.
The playwright - investigating the effect on a relationship of an unthinkable tragedy and indeed exploring grief - does an adequate job of transposing a stage play to the screen, however, the setting of the protaganists in an affluent neighbourhood and in a picture perfect house was unnecessary as the movie was not about the status of the people but about their soul. The interminable shots of the house and view from same were to me a distraction.
We follow Bec (Nicole Kidman) and her husband Howie (Aaron Eckhart) as they are trying to come to terms with the sudden tragic death of their only son who chases the family dog onto the street and is hit by a car.  All this occurs off screen and thankfully Director John Cameron Mitchell does not succumb to the temptation of showing this in flashback.  Bec by chance sees the young boy who was the driver of the car that killed her son and follows him in an attempt to assuage her grief.  (In the play, the young driver comes to their house as he also is trying to work through his grief and pain). 
Attempts to go to a self help group fail miserably (some of the best scenes in the film), and Howie almost sees the only way out of his grief is to be unfaithful to Bec. 
The final scene in the movie is I feel the best- the couple throw a BBQ lunch and invite all their old friends who have been treading on eggshells unsure and unable to resume their old friendship since the tragedy.  The suffering of the characters is summed up at the end of this scene - the grieving parents can put on a show of normality so that life goes on, but the pain is always there and will continue for the rest of their lives.
Nicole Kidman does a fantastic job once again, this time showing us the pain of Bec, and Aaron Eckhart does adequately showing us his pain and how he is trying to come to terms with the tragedy.
However, the movie did not really grab me - I am not sure why, it just did not fully realise in me the tragedy. Everything about the movie is hard to fault - the screenplay, the direction and the acting - but it lacked the final ingredient to raise it to a higher level.

My Score:  7/10

Ma's View:

Pepe you hated "Australia" and even Nicole Kidman couldn't make that palatable for you!

Yes, Rabbit Hole  is a very powerful movie/play about the effects of grief on people and their relationships and we learn a great deal about the varying methods people use to cope, the most important aspect being that everyone finds their own way of coping.  I enjoyed Kidman's performance but I especiallly enjoyed her offbeat, wayward sister, played by Tammy Blanchard, and her mum, played by Diane West, a mature American actress whom I had not seen before.  Her description of the grief of losing a child was very poignant "it's like a brick you carry around with you all the time but after a while you like having it because it's what you have instead of your child".  (Probably misquoted but that's the gist - a pain that never quite leaves you)

The young man in the movie was not quite as well-drawn as in the play - I felt he did not capture the impact that running down a child even accidentally might have on his peace of mind.  In the play, he was much more in need of her forgiveness and understanding.

Nevertheless, a very satisfying movie, even though for us some of the tension was diffused because we knew from the start what was causing the mother's erratic behaviour.

My Score:  7.5/10

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