Review

Review Date: 16-January-11
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Rabbit Hole (2010)

The rabbit hole in David Lindsay-Abaire's play of that name is a portal from one parallel universe to another, as imagined by a teenaged boy who writes his own comic book. The idea of escaping your known self into a world of some other self is particularly appealing to this boy and the woman who reads his work. In an alternate universe this boy might not have accidentally struck and killed the woman's four-year-old child, leaving her lost in a limbo that is hardly a world at all. In an alternate universe they might never have met and both been the better for it.

In John Cameron Mitchell's quiet but wrenching version of Rabbit Hole (adapted for the screen by Lindsay-Abaire himself), Nicole Kidman plays the woman, Becca, who does not divulge to her husband Howie (Aaron Eckhart) that she meets with the teenager (Miles Teller) who killed their child. Eight months have passed since the catastrophe and their first outpouring of grief, yet it is still a source of tension between them. They have resumed the course of their well-to-do existence, with Howie commuting between home, work, and the gym and Becca keeping a now silent house. She also keeps a tight rein on her emotions. After insulting members of their therapy group she refuses to attend any longer, and she rebuffs Howie's sweet but increasingly desperate pleas for sex.

Momentous strides require a push, and in this case it comes from Becca's bohemian sister (Tammy Blanchard), who announces that she's pregnant by a new boyfriend. All of a sudden Becca is seeing more of her simple-hearted mother (Dianne Wiest) and being forced to look the idea of motherhood in the face. Kidman and Wiest work well together, illustrating the enduring exasperation of the generation gap before coming to a shared understanding. As Becca stalks and then befriends the fateful teenager (in an interesting spanning of the generation gap), Howie continues to go to group therapy, where he finds the greatest comfort in a newly single woman (Sandra Oh).

Although it explores certain phases of grief and how it affects all of the grievers' relationships, Rabbit Hole is ultimately a look at how two people preserve their marriage by stepping away from it — not entirely, but enough to take the next hill on their own. In other words, it shows how Becca and Howie journey down different rabbit holes to arrive at the same destination. While the focus leans slightly towards Becca, Eckhart gives such a warm performance that a viewer can fully commit to the hope of a happy ending. (He's a good foil to Kidman's ice-queen appearance.) Full-blown happiness might be too much to expect for Becca and Howie in the near future, but their wandering reunites them for whatever comes next.

Copyright © 2011 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.