Good Grief

Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart don’t have the bestest of time in Rabbit Hole.

And that’s exactly why this John Cameron Mitchell-directed take on David Lindsay-Abaire’s own adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play is something not to...enjoy, per se, but to admire, because these two actors are heartbreaking as suburban-New York parents grieving the loss of their 4-year-old son eight months earlier.

Eckhart, for the first time in many years, blazes through leading-man territory that has been denied to him with thankless turns in subpar projects like, say, Love Happens, in which he also played a man coping with the death of a loved one. Not that I am comparing this film to that movie. It’s apples and oranges – completely different genres.

All I’m saying is Eckhart shines as his character, Howie, struggles to be allowed by his wife, Becca (Kidman, who received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance, and is a leading candidate for an Oscar nod later this month), to feel everything he wants and needs to feel in order to heal, while she would rather shut out as much of the world as possible in order to remain in control of the chaos she feels inside.

The loss of a child does not a feel-good movie make. Ditto that of an anything (see the dissolution of Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams’ relationship in Blue Valentine). It isn’t fun to watch, but when the material at hand is as thoughtfully played as it is in Rabbit Hole, well...the pain we see on screen becomes tolerable.

Howie and Becca are still going through the motions after the accident that claimed their boy. They go to group counseling, which she finds a waste of her time and irritating (especially when the other parents turn to God for comfort). Howie, on the other hand, finds it helpful...or, at least, he wants to – more than anything, he wants to help his wife so they can move on together, away from the memories, the longing, the guilt, the passive-aggressiveness, the house they once called a home.

Becca’s not ready, though. She’s angrier than she realizes or knows how to express, and resentful (of just about everything), and short (with just about everyone – her mother, played by Dianne Wiest, knows the pain she’s feeling all too well, yet she’s a frequent target). Kidman plays every emotion perfectly, daring to make her character unlikeable but understandable.

The couple’s journey takes them in different directions for a while. Howie finds solace in a fellow group-goer (Sandra Oh, from TV’s Grey’s Anatomy), while Becca connects with the teenager (Miles Teller) who ran over her child and finds a kindred spirit, a pain she recognizes.

Ultimately, she accepts that this is her life now, and that, like her mother says, she can learn how to be “fine” with it.

As Rabbit Hole goes deeper and deeper, it sometimes veers as off track as Becca and Howie are in their marriage, but ultimately, it finds its way to the hope they need, and it’s a beautiful thing.

My Rating ***

Photo: Lionsgate Films.