Rabbit Hole

The film is centered on a couple (Nicole Kidman & Aaron Eckhart) whose son was killed eight months earlier chasing the family dog into the street. Basically the film portrays how tragedy has affected them (not well) and how they try to deal with the grief. Given the subject matter it would have been surprising had the film not been intense and, occasionally, uncomfortably bleak, but its difficult to say if its really the films quality that invokes the emotional reactions in the audience, or if its just the inherent nature of the subject. In some ways the film is very conventional in how it hits all the beats of grief (anger, acceptance, leading to maybe some hope, etc) and nothing that new is conveyed. What it does have going for it is some nice moments of humor which actually feel organic when they could have very easily been out of place.

Its a tough film at times, and I'm not sure its really fun to watch. It does have two really meaty roles at its core, which both actors tear into, and at least tries to deal with some serious issues. I wouldn't necessarily avoid it because of the subject matter, but I can't say that I learned anything dramatic either. Though I've never had anything happen to me that would bring about this level of grief (other than the time sobarro's was out of pizza sticks) so my lack of engagement could have just been a result of my generally shallow nature.