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Sunday, December 19, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
Rabbit Hole
Marital, Faithful Secrets In
The Wake Of Painful Loss
Nicole Kidman as Becca and Aaron Eckhart as Howie in John Cameron Mitchell's
drama "Rabbit Hole" .
Lionsgate
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Sunday,
December 19, 2010
"Rabbit Hole" opened in numerous U.S. cities over the weekend, and it holds your
interest with two effective performances from Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as
Becca and Howie, an upper middle-class married couple grappling with the
aftermath of their son's untimely death. The film is based on the
award-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire, who also wrote the screenplay.
As directed by John Cameron Mitchell, "Rabbit Hole" is discreet, marking a
change of pace for a director who's helmed more outré films like "Hedwig And The
Angry Inch" and "Shortbus". Mr. Mitchell
however, has an intimately personal stake: he lost a sibling of his own when he
was younger, and he lends this stage material dignity and restraint. One
of the great pleasures of "Rabbit Hole" is that it goes places you don't think
it will, and avoids going to areas you think it's bound to go.
Becca and Howie live in suburban New York. Each handles the grieving
process differently. One lashes out in bursts of anger. The other is
comfortable going to group therapy sessions. Later in the film we see a
young man. One of the two bereft parents sees the same person. Who
is he? We see him and one of the parents again. The scenes of their
interaction are the film's best, with great acting from Miles Teller, who plays
the young man. Mr. Teller's character has a quality that makes him more
mature in many respects than the rest of those in Mr. Cameron's drama. I
don't necessarily think that's by design; though it's Mr. Teller's subtlety and
the openness of Mr. Cameron's direction of those scenes that is revealing and
refreshing.
The few differences between the play and the adapted screen work are minor
though striking, including the reversal of pursuit between two key figures in
the play, which occurs entirely in the parents' house. Several film
characters are non-existent in the play. Despite the obvious and
inevitable changes in landscape, Mr. Cameron's cameras maintain a closeness to
the principals involved. There's some fun and mischief by the director
too, in the way he skewers the idea of group therapy. The film has other
flashes of odd comedy to lighten serious moments. Through it all
cinematographer Frank G. DeMarco's visual style mostly stays light and airy.
"Rabbit Hole" could be said to be the latest in a series of a "rich white people
grieving" genre of pictures ("Ordinary People", "In The Bedroom" among others).
Audiences may or may not care a wit about the circumstances of Becca and Howie,
though I found myself completely invested. Others may say, "why should we
care about their hardships?" Point taken. After all, aside
from the upcoming "Blue Valentine", how many American films today sincerely take
the time to assess the temperature of poor couples' hardships? "Rabbit
Hole" juxtaposes Becca's younger, working-class sister Izzy (Tammy Blanchard),
who is pregnant, perhaps introducing a veiled idea that working-class people are
less sympathetic and somehow don't deserve kids, or, more precisely, that Izzy's
boon is meant to manufacture, reinforce and amplify more sympathy for the
richer, bereaved Becca and Howie. The film's self-consciousness on this
point is reflected in Izzy's statement to Becca: "I resent the feeling that I
get from you that I don't deserve this baby."
The actors are the film's biggest strength. Mr. Eckhart's portrait of
Howie is cerebral, weighted by the tragedy his character experiences. The
tragedy is buttressed by others' intractable dispositions. Howie is
straight-jacketed but as authenthic as any grieving parent can be. He
resists sentimentality, but if he harbors any it's displayed with the utmost
economy and necessity. The film follows his lead, largely avoiding
syrupy-sweet layers of sadness, and Anton Sanko's score is hardly noticeable, at
least on an initial viewing. There's a melodramatic scene that momentarily
freezes "Rabbit Hole", establishing itself more as an acting showcase than as an
episode belonging within the structure of an otherwise genteel film. Ms.
Kidman is stellar as Becca, an unlikable mother whose self-righteousness blinds
her better instincts. Finely attuned to her character, Ms. Kidman balances
adult rigidity with child-like wildness and curiousity. Her talent here is
a joy to observe, and it's such carefully calibrated acting.
Mr. Cameron also makes the most of diverse casting choices, with Sandra Oh,
Giancarlo Esposito, and admirable supporting work from Dianne Wiest as Becca's
well-meaning mother. They add a richness to the film's varying moods,
serving a purpose that goes beyond ornamental.
Essentially, "Rabbit Hole" is about the collision of the secrets that marital
partners harbor from each other and how those revelations helps foster a gateway
forward between them. The secrets uncovered are hardly instances of
cheating; they are faithful and entirely plausible, within the ambit of any
human being who has had a long-term relationship, whether or not they've
suffered heartbreaking loss. "Rabbit Hole" isn't as raw or abrasive as
Andrea Arnold's superb debut film "Red Road", a British drama about a
working-class woman enduring the loss of a child, but it is a mature, smartly
observed drama.
With: John Tenney, Stephen Mailer, Mike Doyle, Roberta Wallach, Patricia
Kalember.
"Rabbit Hole" is rated PG-13 by the Motion
Picture Association Of America for mature thematic material, some drug use and language.
The film's running time is one hour and 32 minutes.
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