One of the highlights of Toronto International Film Festival this year was John Cameron Mitchell‘s Rabbit Hole. You can check out my review, but it is quite a departure from the oddity in Hedwig and Shortbus. Based on the play by David Lindsay-Abaire, who also wrote the script, it is a personal examination of grief and holding a marriage together. The couple in question is Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman, who gives one of her best performances as of late.
The drama also stars Dianne Wiest, Tammy Blanchard, Miles Teller, Giancarlo Esposito, Jon Tenney, Patricia Kalember, Julie Lauren and Sandra Oh. The first trailer below attempts to capture the quiet, somber tone but it doesn’t really succeed. I’d actually recommending avoiding it altogether, as it reveals one of the better scenes right off the bat. If you can’t wait, see it below via Apple.
Synopsis: RABBIT HOLE is a vivid, hopeful, honest and unexpectedly witty portrait of a family searching for what remains possible in the most impossible of all situations. Becca and Howie Corbett (NICOLE KIDMAN and AARON ECKHART) 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. While Becca finds pain in the familiar, Howie finds comfort. The shifts come in abrupt, unforeseen moments. Becca hesitantly opens up to her opinionated, loving mother (DIANNE WIEST) and secretly reaches out to the teenager involved in the accident that changed everything (MILES TELLER); while Howie lashes out and imagines solace with another woman (SANDRA OH). Yet, as off track as they are, the couple keeps trying to find their way back to a life that still holds the potential for beauty, laughter and happiness. The resulting journey is an intimate glimpse into two people learning to re-engage with each other and a world that has been tilted off its axis.
Lionsgate will release Rabbit Hole on December 17th, 2011.
What do you think of the trailer?