“Rabbit Hole”–A Parallel Universe
Nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Play and a 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner, “Rabbit Hole” was released as a movie starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart about six months ago (December 2010). This movie takes familiar territory and creates a classic.
Astutely named, “rabbit hole” refers to a bizarre or difficult state or situation. What gut-wrenching, reality-changing universe can be more brutal and painful than the death of a loved one? A metaphor for adventure into the unknown, from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, there is no clear set of rules for a world turned upside down by grief . In a labyrinth of guilt, self-recrimination, tightly controlled rage and estrangement from oneself, there seems to be no escape.
The storyline is every parent’s nightmare–the death of a child. Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) struggle furiously with the deepest of wounds after the death of their 4-year-old son, Danny. The once happily married couple finds themselves displaced. Their marriage on the verge of a nervous breakdown, in a house still infused with death. Where Becca finds pain in the familiar, Howie finds comfort. Their souls are dissolving and dangerously off track.
Becca’s loving but unintentionally inept mother (Dianne Wiest) has also experienced the death of a son and unsuccessfully offers comfort and advice but Becca reflexively refuses. Weekly support group therapy only increases Becca’s inability to heal. Howie finds solace in Gaby, a fellow therapy attendee (played with compassion by Sandra Oh) while Becca stalks a teenager who has written and illustrated a comic book, entitled “Rabbit Hole”, about a parallel universe where Becca believes “somewhere out there I’m having a good time.”
This cinematic character study redirects our sympathies at every turn. Never mordant, though painful, this taxonomy of grief taps a reservoir of feelings common to anyone who has experienced the reality-shifting vacuum left by a death in the family. Anyone who has ever gone through the possessions of a deceased family member or close friend understands instantly the crispness in tone of voice, the touch of the clothing, and the memory of smell portrayed in several of this film’s most memorable scenes. Without flinching, the cast makes it clear that the wound beneath the surface never really stops hurting, but heals by degrees.
My Top Ten Movies for 2011–Reviewed, Not Necessarily New | Unhealed Wound
[…] Rabbit Hole (July 4 review)– Never mordant, though painful, this taxonomy of grief is like no other I have seen in recent […]
Celeste Wahl
As I have not heard of this film I’m not sure if it would have register as something to see, but I agree with your friend’s comments. Somethings cannot be revisited.
Diana
A friend sent me this comment via personal email and I would like to share it with you:
“I thought your review was to the point, very informative and had much feeling wrapped around the comments.
Having experienced a severe loss, it is too hard to read about it, never mind seeing the movie.
Reading your review made me feel some of the old feelings. I used to feel like Alice falling down the dark hole, never ending…I never knew about “rabbit hole” till now.
Thanks for the review; it was written with much heart and compassion.”
Eugene
Wow…what a review…We will have to put it in our Netflix…