Rabbit Hole

(M) Roadshow DVD/BD

Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) Corbett are a well-to-do couple floundering in grief, having lost their four-year-old son eight months ago.

They are clinging to a daily routine of their beautiful lives so they have something to do, but they lash out of their cocoons at each other and sometimes quite cruelly at others.

Becca is brutally intolerant of her mother and those in their grief support group seeking solace in their faith.

Becca and Howie drift apart as they seek different paths for dealing with their grief, pained by their inability to chart the journey of recovery together.

A chance sighting of the person responsible for the death of her son draws Becca into stalking and then engaging with Jason (Miles Teller).

They meet several times and come to some common ground, while Howie steps away from his pot-fuelled and potentially catastrophic dalliance.

Becca’s reconciliation with her mother Nat (Diane Wiest), driven by a new understanding of her own brother’s death and her own mother’s grief, leads the story towards a more hopeful ending.

The leads and the supporting cast give fine performances and the film is a sensitive chronicle of part of the recovery process.

Some may find this film over-earnest in parts, rather than deep and moving.

Dave Cornford