One of the films I regret missing at TIFF this year, particularly because everyone who saw it had nothing but good things to say about it. Certainly Rabbit Hole is going to be a challenging film as it deals with the loss of an only child to a car accident by young(ish) parents. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart play the parents and if a trailer and word of mouth are to be judged, both are in top form. Rabbit Hole seems to takes advantage of Ms. Kidman’s distant-ness on screen, although by the end (and the trailer has a quite uplifting tone) it does seem that Kidman melts a bit on camera. Bonus has Sandra Oh and the always fabulous Dianne Weist in supporting rolls. I expect this to be a fair bit better than the Canadian made similar (but still different) film Beautiful Boy (Kurt’s Review), maybe because the concept behind Rabbit Hole is a bit more basic, and a bit less, edgy. Still, I also expect a lot of crying on screen. Director John Cameron Mitchell detours from gay and highly sexuality feel-good cinema (Hedgwig and the Angry Inch, Short Bus) in directing David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer-winning play for the big screen.
Becca and Howie Corbett are returning to their everyday existence in the wake of a shocking, sudden loss. Just eight months ago, they were a happy suburban family with everything they wanted. Now, they are caught in a maze of memory, longing, guilt, recrimination, sarcasm and tightly controlled rage from which they cannot escape. While Becca finds pain in the familiar, Howie finds comfort. The shifts come in abrupt, unforeseen moments. Becca hesitantly opens up to her opinionated, loving mother and secretly reaches out to the teenager involved in the accident that changed everything; while Howie lashes out and imagines solace with another woman. Yet, as off track as they are, the couple keeps trying to find their way back to a life that still holds the potential for beauty, laughter and happiness. The resulting journey is an intimate glimpse into two people learning to re-engage with each other and a world that has been tilted off its axis.
Rabbit Hole is very much one of my more anticipated films for the remainder of the year.
The trailer is tucked under the seat.
Mike O’Donnell’s life is falling apart. He’s been looked over for a promotion at a company he’s been with for 17 years, his kids won’t talk to him, his marriage is falling apart and he’s bunking with his wacky high-school friend. Things aren’t looking up until a chance encounter with a janitor turns Mike back into his 17 year old self. With the help of his friend Ned, Mike enrols himself in high school in an attempt to relive his youth and not make the mistakes he made the first time around. As expected, along the way he builds a relationship with his kids, rekindles his love for his wife and comes to see that he did everything right the first time around but that as an adult, he had failed to remember the things that make him happy.
