I absolutely love Nicole Kidman. She is one of the most talented actresses of our time in my opinion. When looking through her movies, trying to find something to watch, I found Rabbit Hole. I’d been meaning to watch this one for a while, knowing just how good this cast was, I figured it’d be a quality drama. Admittedly, it is not the best hard hitting drama I’ve ever seen, but I like the raw way in which it depicts grief. Films that deal with such difficult subjects like this have a responsibility to be as accurate as possible.
The performances given by the cast is what makes this film worth a watch. Like I said, Kidman is such a skilled actress and absolutely devours this role. I can’t imagine it was easy for her to embody this role given just how excruciating the subject matter is. This performance shows her ability to transform and just immerse herself in different characters. Aaron Eckhart also gives a very fitting performance, probably the best or second best performance I’ve seen him give. I say second because I love him in No Reservations with Catherine Zeta Jones. His character here is much different though and it’s the most serious I’ve ever seen him, but he really nailed the deepness. Dianne Wiest plays a supporting role and makes great use of her time. I’ve always been a fan of hers and this changed nothing.
The dialogue is very biting and sometimes hard to listen to because of the directness of it. Even though it is uncomfortable, it’s necessary because that’s exactly how it would feel in real life. Also, I can see many of these conversations actually occurring under such extreme circumstances. I liked that the script included different ways of handling loss and grief, Kidman and Eckhart’s characters have opposing feelings about how to handle the aftermath of their son’s death. One wants to move forward and can’t handle the painful memories that their home is engrossed in. The other one wants to keep things how they are because he finds comfort in their usual routine and is having trouble moving forward. A lot of couples end up splitting after the tragic loss of a child due to the stress of pain. You wonder if that will happen with this couple and I liked seeing the harsh reality displayed, they do it justice.
Miles Teller is introduced as the person who accidently hit their son and caused his death. While I think it’s very interesting to explore that, I didn’t think those scenes were a great use of screen time. I just wasn’t that blown away by Teller in the role. I thought the scenes involving Sandra Oh were a lot more effective. The idea of Eckhart’s character finding some solace in another woman’s company and seeing the potential consequences of that is far more interesting to me. Also, that situation can easily happen in real life. A spouse drifting towards another person to escape the pain is a lot more realistic than the Miles Teller situation.
Rabbit Hole is a very realistic drama and the raw nature in which death and coping with grief is depicted is admirable. Great performances and biting dialogue is really what makes the film as good as it is. No, it’s not as great as it could’ve been but it’s a solid drama.
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