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Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole

John Cameron Mitchell

  • Country: USA
  • Year: 2010
  • Language: English
  • Producer: Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Nicole Kidman, Per Saari, Gigi Pritzker
  • Executive Producer: Dan Revers, William Lischak, Linda McDonough, Brian O'Shea
  • Screenplay: David Lindsay-Abaire, based on his play.
  • Programmes:

A family navigates the deepest form of loss in John Cameron Mitchell's screen adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart deliver captivating performances as a husband and wife who fight to save their marriage in the life that begins again after tragedy.

Adaptation,  Drama,  Family Relations

screening times

    • Monday September 13
    • 9:00:00 PM
    • VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)
    • Tuesday September 14
    • 2:30:00 PM
    • VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)
    • Saturday September 18
    • 11:00:00 AM
    • VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)

Note: indicates Premium Screening.

official description

In Shortbus and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, director John Cameron Mitchell pushed sexual limits, broke genre boundaries and did both with an all-embracing generosity. He’s made some of the sweetest naughty movies of our time. Rabbit Hole marks a major progression. Gone is the euphoric underground sensibility, replaced by more broadly accessible storytelling and impressive formal control. Taking its place among the highest quality contemporary American drama, Rabbit Hole starts from a superb script interpreted by first-rate actors doing some of their best work.

Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart play Becca and Howie Corbett, a couple trying to mourn, but unsure how to do it. They have retreated into politeness and private rituals, appearing more and more isolated in their upper middle-class home, which looks especially barren now that their young son is gone after a hit-and-run tragedy.

Unable to mourn but unready to re-enter daily life, Becca rebuffs her family, snapping at her more reckless sister and humiliating her mother (Dianne Wiest) every chance she gets. She even turns her sharp tongue on the members of the support group which she and her husband attend. As Howie makes genuine efforts to connect – including an overly earnest attempt with another mourning parent, played by Sandra Oh – Becca begins to pursue a course even she doesn’t understand. She starts to reach out to the boy who killed her son, a teenaged driver whose life was irrevocably changed by the incident. Their relationship, full of curiosity, suppressed rage and a surprising mutual recognition, forms the fascinating counterpoint to the discordant notes of a marriage in crisis.

Mitchell shapes this material with maturity and grace. Dianne Wiest gives a nuanced performance to match the best of her work. Eckhart is superb as a husband tortured by both the death of his son and the withering of his marriage. Kidman is remarkable. We expect disciplined, precise work from her, but there is new range here, and a willingness to show frayed emotions that makes this one of the finest performances of the year.

Cameron Bailey

director bio

John Cameron Mitchell was born in El Paso, Texas. In the early nineties, he originated the OBIE Award-winning off-Broadway production Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which in 2001 became his feature directorial debut. The film received the best director and audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival and Mitchell received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as the title character. He has since directed music videos for Bright Eyes and Scissor Sisters, and the feature film Shortbus (06), which screened at the Festival. Rabbit Hole (10) is his third feature film.

full credits

Principal Cast: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest, Miles Teller, Tammy Blanchard, Sandra Oh
Producer: Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Nicole Kidman, Per Saari, Gigi Pritzker
Executive Producer: Dan Revers, William Lischak, Linda McDonough, Brian O'Shea
Cinematographer: Frank G. DeMarco
Editor: Joe Klotz
Sound: Ron Bochar, Ben Cheah
Music: Anton Sanko
Production Designer: Kalina Ivanov
     
Production Company: Olympus Pictures/Blossom Films
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