Based on David Lindsay-Abaire's award-winning play, the story deals with a couple following the death of their four-year-old child. From that description, you might have certain expectations going in. This film from John Cameron Mitchell (HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH) will challenge those expectations at every turn. While it has a somber tone, the story finds a lot of humor in human behavior.
Nicole Kidman received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Becca, a woman trying to move on from her grief. Her husband Howie (Aaron Eckhart, ERIN BROCKOVICH) wants to move on too, but he's afraid his wife is trying to erase their son from memory. Though it's been eight months, their friends and family tread lightly around them. Becca's sister Izzy (Tammy Blanchard, THE GOOD SHEPHERD) is pregnant, but she doesn't tell her. Becca's mother Nat (Dianne Wiest, LOST BOYS) tries to relate to her daughter with her own experiences losing a son, but Becca resents the comparison between her innocent four-year-old chasing a dog into traffic and getting hit to a 30-year-old drug addict who ODed.
Becca and Howie can't talk about what they are feeling with each other because it always leads to a fight. They are feeling different things and each seem to resent each other for it. They go to therapy meetings, but Becca can't handle all the "God talk." She asks one crying mother why God didn't just make another angel instead of taking their child. With Becca backing out of the support group, Howie finds a kind ear in Gaby (Sandra Oh, SIDEWAYS), whose husband and her have been going to meetings for eight years. Becca begins following the high school student Jason (Miles Teller, FOOTLOOSE remake). They strike up a tender relationship where he shares with her the comic book he is working on called "Rabbit Hole," where the son of a scientist travels to an alternative universal to connect with that dimension's version of his dead father.
Kidman, as Becca, gives one of her best performance, certainly her best since her Oscar winning turn in THE HOURS. She gives Becca a quiet sadness and a raw wit. She can be harsh sometimes, but she is doing her best. Wiest, as her mother, gives a unique quality to Nat. She is a mother who still holds tight to the things she tried to instill into her children. When Becca doesn't want to cling to religion to get over her loss, Nat's shamed reaction ("I took you to church every week") doesn't help her daughter at all, only makes things worse. Some have criticized Eckhart's performance as over the top and jarring. But I think that is the point. His anger is constantly bubbling under the surface and he is ready to explode. He overreacts, but that's his way of getting Becca to actually listen to him.
Being a parent, the loss of a child is an unimaginable tragedy. Most couples that go through it don't last. It changes them instantly. Part of a successful relationship is adapting to change, but normally it happens slowly over time and in good relationships the two people are headed in the same direction. For Becca and Howie, one seems to be going left while the other right. It's clear they still love each other, especially Howie, but now as different people will they be able to love the new person?
While the ending might be too neat, it does leave on a hopefully note. This seems appropriate for a film that tries to find lighter moments amongst the pain. Lindsay-Abaire, who adapted his own play, is perceptive about character and Mitchell simply stays out of the way of the writing. Grief is so hard to honestly portray on screen, because it so easily can slip into melodrama. This trip down the rabbit hole isn't a wonderland, but puts up a looking glass to the healing process.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
