moonspinner55 Review of Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole (2010)

An extremely well-crafted, well-acted movie that never quite takes off...

[6/10 · 28 June 2011]

Sensitive drama from writer David Lindsay-Abaire, based upon his play, about a benumbed married couple, mourning the death of their little boy, who seek different paths to deal with their grief; the wife forms a tentative friendship with the teenager who hit the child accidentally with his car, while the husband contemplates having an affair. The film unfolds carefully, and at times beautifully, but the bloom somehow fades with about fifteen minutes left on the clock--when one can almost sense the filmmakers' dilemma in bringing this story to a satisfying close. Director John Cameron Mitchell has an artistic eye, and he does superlative work with his actors, but many of the stronger scenes (such as Nicole Kidman slapping a woman in the supermarket, or Aaron Eckhart accusing Kidman of erasing a video from his phone) aren't built upon. The narrative is rather slipshod; instead of a forceful whole, we get intriguing episodes. **1/2 from ****