Review of Rabbit Hole (2010) by Ryangee — 07 Jan 2011

Director David Lindsay-Mitchell's Rabbit Hole is an example of poetry in action. To further this analogy, the film conveys the reality of emotion and heartbreak in a manner that is both abstract and relatable. While this emotion surely resonates from the stellar performance by Nicole Kidman, there is an utter lack of inspiration or purpose to give the film any sort of a compelling aspect.

Rabbit Hole is the film adaption of David Lindsay-Abaire's play depicting the lives of two parents (Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart) who have recently lost their 4-year-old child. While the premise is overly simple, it is brought to life by the emotional realism of Kidman's performance. In perhaps her in one of her greatest portrayals, Kidman is able to personify agony through the subtlety and constraint of her performance. The actress does an impeccable job of employing emotional restraint within her character resulting in the heartbreak and pathos within the film's grim material. This performance will clearly be overshadowed by Natalie Portman's effort in Black Swan, but Kidman's performance is perhaps even more complex in the fashion where she controls her character. Acknowledging the effort of the ensemble as a whole, Eckhart compliments Kidman's acting, but it is obvious that the film's core lays in his counterpart. Along with Nicole Kidman's amazing performance, the writing adapted from Lindsay-Abaire's play finely illustrates the picture of the pain expressed by two parents. The realism of the writing prevents Rabbit Hole from becoming merely melodrama lost in the absence of plot direction. So while the realism is defined, the purpose of this aspect is absent. Rabbit Hole places heavy emotion within its audience, but it ultimately just leaves it in an unchanged manner throughout the film. While it can be seen as simply a social illustration of coping with death, it never really has any purpose. The film does not really give hope nor a conclusion of despair. Overall, Rabbit Hole is a marvelous and well-acted portrayal of a common human emotion of despair, but that is in all actuality the sole definition of the film; Resulting in a film that seems somewhat rewarding but wholeheartedly empty.