Rabbit Hole

John Cameron Mitchel is a very quirky director. He now teams up with Nicole Kidman to make a very normal film.

Grief is a subject in film that needs a very careful hand to be able to pull it off. The audience knows that they are in for a hard experience and it can sometimes come across as cliched and maudlin. A film maker must deftly balance the sad moments so it does not become too much for the audience. Luckily James and his writers have been able to inject wonderful moments of humour into this story of a couple struggling with the death of their child. It never feels out of place. It happens at times when it is needed to alleviate the sentiment. I was moved by this film more so that I expected. I've had some personal experience with a similar situation in my family and so seeing a couple dealing with their grief in this way was especially poignant for me. Thank god for credits because after the film had finished I needed time before I could leave the cinema. It is not often that I have such a deeply emotional response to a film. There was however one moment that had a huge emotional impact and that was the artwork for the comic book that's in the film. The final picture of the rabbit/worm holes was one of the most beautiful pieces of artwork I've ever seen. I was so surprised at how it made me feel.

Nicole Kidman gets a lot of criticism for being so cold and unemotional in her film which I agree with to a certain extent. She usually plays that kind of character and usually someone rich and posh. However here she plays someone more real and her performance brings that out. You feel she is a real person, an average person that we could all meet in our daily lives. Many have said it before and it is so true that this is by far and away Nicole's best performance ever. Equally brilliant though is Aaron Eckhart. I think Nicole has over shadowed him because Aaron is such a brilliant actor that we take him for granted. However Nicole could not have been as good as she was if not for Aaron's support. Dianne Wiest is in that situation too. She is as usual so brilliant here.

By far and away the best film I've seen this year. I cannot recommend this film highly enough. Go see that Nicole Kidman can act.