Rabbit Hole

Cinema has always unashamedly drawn its inspiration from any form of narrative it can get its grubby mitts on. Unless it’s nailed to the ground everything imaginable has by now had the cinematic treatment. From historical epics, retaining very little factual information of the events they portray, to adaptations of much loved literary classics that, more often than not, they usually fail to capture the true essence of the source material in an attempt to condense everything into a sellable two hour narrative.

Recently there has been a trend for a mirroring of this phenomenon between cinema and theatre. We’ve recently had stage versions of big screen favourites such as Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Ghost and the Lion King (to name but a few), whilst cinema, particularly American Independent cinema, has looked towards critically popular west end shows for moving character dramas to recreate and sell to a larger audience. Yet while watching a painstakingly crafted film stripped down to its core on stage in an attempt to capture it’s inner magic, purely being held together vitally by strong acting and pragmatic direction, can no doubt be a fascinating procedure to witness firsthand, the same cannot always be said for reversing the treatment.

Rabbit Hole is a screen adaptation of the eponymous play by David Lindsay-Abaire. Starring Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman as a fraught couple haunted by the loss of their only child, it acts as an insightful character study into the devastating effects of a child’s death on a successful married couple.

While the acting on show is as poignant and evocative as you’d expect from such stalwarts of the medium (indeed, roles left in lesser hands would’ve ultimately culminated in something not too dissimilar from a made-for-TV movie on an obscure satellite channel) the overall feeling is that you are viewing little more than a screen version of a play. There is an overriding sense that it’s just a few flashes of brilliance away from being a wonderfully powerful film that could be enjoyed by a much wider audience, but unfortunately Rabbit Hole feels disappointingly forgettable and left to dwell in a no-man’s land of viewing ambivalence - a fate the performances of Eckhart and Kidman don’t deserve.

For fans of immersive character acting and well constructed narrative Rabbit Hole will no doubt come across as a tour-de-force. However, for those who expect an added element of cinematic visual immersion that cannot be achieved on a stage, Rabbit Hole will feel little more than a long-winded cautionary tale on the affecting issues of loss.  

Director: John Cameron Mitchell   
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest, Sandra Oh, Miles Teller
Certificate: 12
DVD Runtime: 91 minutes (approx.)
Release date: 20th June 2011

Patrick Gamble