The fracture point of a human being can triggered by a variety of pressures. However, nothing surmounts tragedy like the loss of a child. Such is the premise of Rabbit Hole – a poignant, heartbreaking tale of marriage quaking with aftershocks from the death of their 4 year old son. The emotional tour-de-force which floods the screen from both Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart feels so transcendently authentic, so genuine, that we can only sit there mesmerized. Mesmerized by their grief; by their anger; by their blameless accusations and their attempts of acceptance that verger into humour territory.
Rabbit Hole is – in my humble option – the sleeper hit of last year and my favourite film of this year. Granted, if you don’t like dire, depressive dramas you wouldn’t care to see this one. But YOU SHOULD care! Because it’s not a total gloom to doom story. What makes me laud Rabbit Hole – and it’s creative mastermind John Cameron Mitchell (the director behind the sexily warped Shortbus and the stunning Hedwig and the Angry Inch) – is how it doesn’t showcase the typical “bring on the tears” scene where the child actually gets killed. The child’s death is an accident; an accident that cannot be blamed on anyone. It’s one of those devastating “natural” sequence of events that climaxes in disaster. Some may argue it being “fate.” But what isn’t fated is how human beings deal with such disaster. It’s almost exquisite watching Nicole Kidman as Becca trying to retain composure behind her emotional brick wall homemaker persona. The mundane events of gardening, baking even tread-mill become excuses to escape from dealing with reality – even if it’s 8 months later. So exquisite in fact that her performance is like watching a dripping tap that can’t be completely shut off. Where each drip of her mental fragility drops into a glass on the brink of flowing over. Where she can’t call out for help to stop the drip inducing flood because she herself doesn’t believe in – or accept – anyone’s help.
Even though I picked Natalie Portman for Best Actress for 2010, Nicole Kidman is close on her heals in second spot. Not since The Hours or Moulin Rouge has Nicole Kidman been so superb.
Equally counterpart in acting is Aaron Eckhart. I feel he tops his last recognized performance in Thank You for Smoking by a long-mile. Especially when he completely loses it on Jason (a doleful, solitary Miles Teller), the teenager responsible for their son’s death. The writing by David Linsay-Abaire (based on the play by the same name starring Tony winner Cynthia Nixon) even lets Dianne Wiest shine as Becca’s mother.
At the end of Rabbit Hole I walked out with the feeling of hope. Which makes you realize how much of a triumph the movie is, especially when it engulfs the audience in the anguish of tragedy.