Becca, Rabbit Hole (2010)
Based upon David Lindsay-Abaire’s screenplay of his original play, Rabbit Hole follows grieving parents Becca and Howie as they stumble through the interminable days that remain in a life without their 4-year-old son. Danny was killed by a local student who struck the boy with his car when he chased his dog into the street. While Howie (Aaron Eckhart) pivots like a weather vane towards offers of help, understanding or respite, Becca has been impaled by the loss – the point of its impact leaving a scar of molten fury. She cannot hear Howie’s pleas for the hope of another child, or tolerate her mother’s need to bond over the pain of losing a son. She finds curious comfort in a friendship with Jason, the young man who killed Danny. His attempts to process the death have led him to write a comic book – Rabbit Hole – exploring the possibility that parallel universes exist, universes where Danny is alive and Jason is free.
Nicole Kidman’s quiet, controlled grief in John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole is so deeply affecting that I can still picture it two years after I last saw the film. Her vivid depiction of a bereaved mother rings so breathtakingly true that it is, at times, unbearable to watch. With something of Isabel Archer’s dignity about her she stands tall and composed and yet something in her air suggests that a gust of wind could huff her away like a dandelion clock. Kidman’s is a memorable performance in an exceptional film and the interplay of Becca’s stoicism with Howie’s desperate need to emote is profoundly moving. Their final shared scene, sitting silently together at the end of a party the pair had carefully rehearsed attending, is a thing of rare beauty and a reminder that her rare talent is a beautiful thing.
