Rabbit Hole (2010)

Rating: 3/4

When it comes to evoking the audience's emotions, Loss of a loved one is perhaps the most explored theme in films. Sadly however, too often filmmakers resort to manipulating those emotions with excessive melodrama - they end up exploiting rather than exploring. Rabbit Hole avoids this pitfall.

It has been 8 months since Becca(Nicole Kidman) has lost her son in a traffic accident right in-front of her house. She openly taunts other couples at group therapy, she more-than-subtly hints how bad her pregnant sister is gonna be at being a mother, she avoids any kind of counselling from her mother, she gets rid of everything that reminds her of her son - the pet, the clothes, drawings on the fridge. For a moment there it occurred to me that this mom got over her child's death a little too quickly. The same thought troubles her husband Howie(Aaron Eckhart) too. Howie's is the more conventional manifestation of grief - he keeps watching his son's videos on his phone, loves having his son's memorabilia around the home, and sometimes breaks down crying. Friction arises between them when she suggests selling away their home.

When things go wrong we look for people to blame. Since there isn't anyone to blame for her son's death, Becca starts finding faults with everything and everyone that reminds her of her son. This, coupled with her confrontational attitude about the subject makes her look like an obnoxious fault finder. The only one to understand this is Becca's mom (Dianne Wiest) whom Becca avoids listening to or argues with. In one particularly powerful scene where Becca shows her vulnerable side, she asks her mom if the pain ever goes away. Her mom, who herself has lost a son, explains how things are gonna be with soul-stirring simplicity.

Is it necessary to follow a template of emotions for people to sympathize with you? What if the popular way of coping doesn't work for you? These are the questions posed and explored in the movie. The movie title, an obvious reference to Alice in Wonderland, refers to an imaginary parallel universe where anything is possible, including a life where everything goes right. The script is intelligent and tight and the acting is almost uniformly good with Nicole Kidman turning out the best performance.