Rabbit Hole

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: December 17th, 2010 (limited)

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart

Directed by: John Cameron Mitchell 

Premise: 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.

[matt35mm]

The reviews have been really good.  It'll be playing at the Austin Film Festival this Thursday, so I'll do my best to catch it then.

[RegularKarate]

I hope it's better than this trailer.
Does it want to be a shitty-over-dramatic sob-fest or does it want to be a quirky indie-film?  I laughed when I wasn't supposed to.

[Pubrick]

The reviews have been really good. 

b-b-b-b-b-b-but it has nicole kidman in it. how can this be???

i'm gonna give it a few more months, maybe after wide release the same critics will watch it a second time and notice that NICOLE KIDMAN is in it, and remember that she's critical and box office poison.

[modage]

It's hard for me to even look at her face in the trailer, I can't imagine watching her for 2 hours.   :yabbse-plastic surgery-face:

[Stefen]

I think it could be good. I think Kidman and Eckhart are sincere. I think they pick scripts based on what they think is good instead of what will make the most money. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I hope it does here.

[Stefen]

This is pretty good. It's basically an acting showcase for Kidman and Eckhart and they're both really good. I don't like children so a movie about parents grieving after losing theirs was pretty funny to me, but overall I found it to be solid. John Cameron Mitchell has really matured as a filmmaker. There are some really solid scenes in this, but it's pretty predictable and pedestrian. As for if it's a shitty-over-dramatic sob-fest or a quirky indie film, it's definitely more of the former. Kidmans face doesn't move much, but I think that worked for her character who is basically shell-shocked and an emotional wreck through most of the flick. The trailer has the corniest line in the movie -- "if God wanted another angel, why didn't he just make one!" there isn't much more of that type of stuff. it's very tame compare to the rest of JCM's filmography. Almost boring when you consider everything else he's made, but I think it's a giant step forward for him.

[john]

it's very tame compare to the rest of JCM's filmography. Almost boring when you consider everything else he's made, but I think it's a giant step forward for him.

Yeah, this felt like the first film he's made without some sort of exaggerative hook to hang the premise upon - and that made me anticipate it. Unfortunately, it's also the first film of his I haven't found myself become unexpectedly invested in.

There are a few moments that feel genuine, and they're kind of rare and odd (Eckhart and Oh playing skeeball), but they made everything else seem even more artificial. The dialogue gets pretty on occasion, too ("Tell them we went to go see the new Stoppard play." was particularly irritating... I'm not entirely sure why.)

Really, there's no reason Mitchell should have done this. He doesn't seem particularly interested in it, and hasn't invested much more in it than some pretty shots. It's a decent film, but it could have been directed by Todd Field, or Bill Condon, or any other middlebrow director and achieved the same effect. Mitchell should go back to filming dudes blowing each other or whatever else resides in his cinematic wheelhouse.


It's lined with a solid cast (Eckhart's great, Wiest is kinda underused) and some pretty, but distractingly calculated cinematography.

But it's too slight in all the wrong ways to make a lasting impression.

[pete]

I really liked it.
some moments that went too far, but I liked how the story emerged.
I guess I just miss American indie films.

[SiliasRuby]

An acting showcase for Echart and Kidman. The story has everything that a heavy and heady drama has and and I was extremely intrigued throughout. Although Kidman is tough to watch because I don't like her in EVERYTHING she's done unlike some other actresses I adore no matter what.

Stefen is right, this will get Mitchell more attention, but if I didn't know any better it could have done by Todd Field. But, my God what performances...