What Do The Critics Say?

"Exquisitely raw and painful, sure, but also richly humane and deeply cathartic, for David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer and Tony award winning play is nothing short of a masterpiece. People in pain are not unlike newborn children, wailing and railing about as they try to get their legs back under them. But what Rabbit Hole so powerfully portrays is that in amongst this desperate keening, there is a wealth of humour to be found. And eventually, a glimmer of grace." Alice Tynan CONCRETE PLAYGROUND "Her best performance since Birth (2004), which means it’s not far off her very best. The terrain of grief is well mapped-out in American art movies, but Rabbit Hole finds some subtle new pathways through it." Tim Robey DAILY TELEGRAPH "While many films would pull out the orchestral strings to force the viewer to shed a tear, here we witness Oscar-nominated Kidman, in her best performance for years. A movie that respects its audience, this is both poignant and funny." Alex Zane SUN ONLINE "Rabbit Hole is a fine example of cinematic empathy. No hysteria, no judgment, just understated yet powerful moments in the aftermath of unspeakable tragedy. While it may be uncomfortable to watch, Rabbit Hole is nonetheless essential viewing." Chris Laverty CLOTHES ON FILM "Based on a play written and adapted by David Lindsay-Abaire, the story is multi-layered and as the surface layers are peeled away, we are left with raw emotion, making much of it tough going. This is a film for a mature audience willing to be confronted emotionally." Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE

"The excellent script avoids wallowing in sickly sentimentality and instead achieves a credible, painfully realistic portrayal of grief. Impressively directed and superbly written, this is a powerfully emotional bereavement drama with a deservedly Oscar-nominated performance from Nicole Kidman. The film feels much less stagey than other recent play adaptations. It is also full of engagingly offbeat touches." Matthew Turner VIEW LONDON "The strengths of this film about a couple devastated by the death of their child lie as much in what it avoids as in what it contains. Rabbit Hole is not predictable, trite, mawkish, or anything else remotely like the kind of "Issue Of The Week" telemovie that so often gets dished up on this kind of theme." Mark Demetrius FILMINK "Eckhart is terrific as the father who is desperate to get past the roadblock of grief in their lives, but doesn't know how. Miles Teller is superb in his acting debut as the young Jason, delivering a complex, vulnerable yet dignified character, allowing us inside through his eyes. It's a star-making performance and the film is worth watching just to discover him." Andrew L Urban URBAN CINEFILE "THE tough subject matter of Rabbit Hole: a couple coping with the accidental death of their four year old son; makes for a surprisingly affecting and even humorous watch, elevated by a pair of first-class performances from Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. An absorbing, sensitive drama that feels painfully, and often amusingly, true." Henry Fitzherbert DAILY EXPRESS

The Inside Story David Lindsay-Abaire’s play took the New York stage by storm in 2006. It was a wholly unanticipated work from an artist who then was best known for his madcap twists on the screwball comedy with such pieces as Fuddy Meers and Kimberly Akimbo. Yet, while "Rabbit Hole" explored the more serious subject of a young family upended by a random accident, and was far more palpably real than anything Lindsay-Abaire ("Robots" & "Inkheart") had done before, the story did not go in a conventional direction. With a complete lack of sentimentality, David Lindsay-Abaire created Becca and Howie Corbett as a couple full of wit and bite, and smart enough to know they're not going to have any soaring, grand, Hollywood-style triumph over loss, no matter how much they want it. Instead, their story became about the way people really cope with tragedy: awkwardly, stubbornly, sarcastically, and in fits and starts of forgiveness and reconciliation that come out of nowhere; only to move them slowly, achingly forward towards an altered, but still cherished, life. The very name of the play: suggesting Alice In Wonderland's famous dive into an extraordinary, unfamiliar realm where impossible things happen; evokes the surreal experience of grief, which leaves nearly everyone who encounters it feeling like a stranger in a strange land. Lindsay-Abaire not only created a very true to life couple caught up in this off-kilter world, but he created them as emotional polar opposites. Private, carefully controlled Becca wants to put away the past and all the relationships in it, yet reaches out to the teenager who inadvertently caused the accident. Meanwhile her husband Howie grasps onto memories and friendships, and tries to find comfort in their marriage. Then the playwright surrounded the pair with a cast of flawed characters who help to bring them home again. Equally key to the story was Becca's wilder sister Izzy, who in an awkward twist of timing announces her pregnancy; Becca's mother Nat, who so desperately wants to help ease her daughter's sorrow yet only seems to frustrate her; and Jason, the teenage boy whose own life unraveled when he accidentally hit the Corbett's son with his car and is now as lost as they are. All of them are left ill at ease, and yet together, they uncover hard-won moments of humor and grace that might be the small steps toward a life they can someday recognize again. The play garnered five Tony® nominations including Best Play, won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Lindsay-Abaire and quickly became internationally renowned. Meanwhile Oscar® winning actress and producer Nicole Kidman ("The Hours") became intrigued with the play before she even saw it. In gact, so intrigued that it would become the first project she produced and starred in for her company Blossom Films. Producer Per Saari (who worked on "The Horse Whisperer"), Kidman's partner in Blossom Films, recalls: "Nicole, who was in Australia at the time, read a review of the play and thought it sounded like the kind of material we wanted to support: powerful, human drama coming from a new and talented voice in the form of David Lindsay-Abaire. Nicole and I had a good feeling about it. Determined to see the show before it was discovered by Hollywood, I flew to New York on the eve of the worst blizzard to hit the city. I ended up stranded there for almost a week, but it was time well spent." As soon as he saw the stage play, Saari understood why critics were so excited by its deft, dry, humor-laced approach to tough topics that are often undone by sentimentality. "The play was raw and it didn't shy away from the truth of what grief is, but it was also hopeful and it was funny." Kidman, who played Grace Stewart in "The Others", had a similar reaction. "I believed in the subject matter and I like to champion stories that are hard to get made. I was just really captivated by this couple who share an extraordinary, deep tragedy and yet they react in such very different ways. They have to grieve in their own ways and yet still live together. I found that very fascinating and I really wanted to play Becca, who was so brilliantly brought to life on Broadway by Cynthia Nixon. I was so excited to help introduce that character to a movie-going audience." When Per Saari, who directed "Why He Skied" met with Lindsay-Abaire, the playwright was ready to jump in. "I never quite felt like I was finished with the characters in "Rabbit Hole". So when Per and Nicole approached me, the idea of exploring them from the new perspective of a film really excited me as a writer. Right away, Per told me they wanted me to feel the same sense of ownership as I had with the play. Of course, writers are never told that, but they were true to their word. I was involved at every turn, and not a single line of what I wrote was changed. Ultimately, everyone who came onto the project: John Cameron Mitchell and the truly amazing cast, contributed so much to it. I was indebted to them but I always felt like I was in there, too, and that was a real gift." "Supporting the artist is a priority for Nicole and me," Saari explained, "and I think we all saw eye to eye on the importance of maintaining this project's integrity from beginning to end. David was a part of the family from that meeting onwards." Also joining the new team were producers Leslie Urdang and Dean Vanech of Olympus Pictures, who took a lead role in bringing the project to the screen. "Nicole and I were lucky to be partnered with Leslie and Dean, who were also the film's financiers, along with OddLot," Saari noted. Urdang and Vanech were as drawn to the material as Kidman and Saari. "I had seen the play, and easily imagined Nicole as an exquisite choice for Becca," says Urdang ("Adam"). "The particular appeal of "Rabbit Hole", was the number of factors that came together to tell a difficult yet hopeful story and in a way a producer could reasonably wait an entire career to find," says Vanech, who produced the 2010 Mike Mills film, "Beginners", which starred Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer. Producer Gigi Pritzker ("The Wedding Planner") from OddLot Entertainment revealed her first impressions on reading the script. "I was immediately drawn to the material, and the way that it walks the fine line of tragedy, irony and levity is brilliant." Urdang notes, the film "with its humor, honesty, and forgiveness reminds us of how people: each in their own way; can carry on to a beautiful and valued life even after the most impossible pain." Faced with translating the tightly-crafted play into a motion picture experience, Lindsay-Abaire had to look at the Corbetts in a new light and expand their story beyond the play's single on-stage location. "The play had stayed entirely in the Corbett house but I quickly realized that writing a movie was going to allow me to completely open up Becca and Howie's world. I had the chance to take a lot of the incidents that are just talked about in the play and allow the audience to experience them." In refining the dialogue for the screen, Lindsay-Abaire also made it a priority to bring the wry humor and sense of the absurd that were woven through the play into the film's script. The playwright knew it would take a director who could bring his own fresh perspective to the story. The producers would approach John Cameron Mitchell, writer and director of the acclaimed "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and the award winning "Shortbus". As he read Lindsay-Abaire's script, Mitchell instantly felt the allure of its themes. "I loved that it's a story not only about loss but about the loss of communication that comes with it. I found myself alternately weeping and laughing my way through it. I usually like to develop my own scripts but this felt so deep, so mature, so rich that it knocked me right off that course. My interest was instantaneous and I dropped everything." Soon after putting down the script, Mitchell spoke with Kidman. "I don't know if you can say we chose him as a director. I think he found the piece and we found him." At the heart of this film are Becca and Howie. Though they have been brought to life by many extraordinary performers on stage, Mitchell says that three time Golden Globe® winner Nicole Kidman and 2009 People's Choice USA Award winner Aaron Eckhart ("The Dark Knight") recreated them in their own distinctive way. Kidman committed herself fully to the role of Becca, knowing it would take her to some shadowy inner places. "I related to her stoicism. I always approached Becca as if she is in such enormous pain that if she even touches on it she'll break, which I think could be true of any woman who loses their child." Aaron Eckhart is renowned for portraying a roster of sly, tricky characters, from the misogynistic manipulator in Neil LaBute's "In The Company of Men" to the tobacco spin doctor in Jason Reitman's "Thank You For Smoking", to the dual good and evil roles of Harvey Dent and Two Face in Christopher Nolan's acclaimed Batman epic, "The Dark Night". Eckhart says he was drawn to Howie Corbett's yearning to pick up the pieces and go on, even if he can't quite figure out how to do that in concert with his wife. "It is a story for anyone who has ever dealt with confusion, loss, family pressures, marital troubles, really all the things we all deal with on a daily basis." While the writing was a magnet for Eckhart, it was the opportunity to work with Kidman that truly sealed the deal. "When I read the screenplay, I knew that Nicole was going to be so good that I just couldn't pass up the chance to work with her on this." As tilted as their world has become, Becca and Howie still have to deal with the rest of their family, including Becca's mother and sister who have no idea how to help her but nevertheless keep trying. The filmmakers chose two-time Academy Award® winner Dianne Wiest ("Bullets Over Broadway" & "Hannah and Her Sisters") for the role of Nat. "In casting Nat, we wanted someone who could be the glue of the story, in a way," Saari explained. Tammy Blanchard, known for her work on Broadway, was cast as Becca's contrasting sister, Izzy. "Izzy is a hip, spirited woman who has always been a fun-loving partier. She can't keep a job, she still lives with mom and yet she's had this wonderful thing happen to her. I think it's really only love that gets them through." Kidman enjoyed the naturally contentious rapport the 'sisters' found together. "We had to be diametrically opposed as sisters, but I think because Tammy and I both have children, we were each very emotionally attuned to the piece and to one another." Miles Teller, was a student at New York University when he auditioned for the role of Jason. "I think Miles will be an exciting new face for audiences," says Mitchell. Kidman felt at ease with Miles from the start. "He's a real discovery." "Miles has an incredible road ahead of him," Eckhart notes. "His scenes with Nicole are tender and human." Teller, who makes his debut, offered: "Jason forges a relationship with Becca that seemed at first like it could never happen. But it might be just enough to get them through today and into tomorrow." What's It All About?

Becca and Howie are trying to rebuild their lives after the loss of their son. 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 she finds pain in the familiar, he finds comfort. The shifts come in abrupt, unforeseen moments. Becca hesitantly opens up to her opinionated, loving mother and secretly reaches out to the teenager involved in the accident that changed everything; while Howie imagines solace with another woman. 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.

The Verdict "It's fair to say that, despite her numerous awards, including an Oscar®, Golden Globe and BAFTA Film Award for "The Hours" (2003), an AFI for "Vietnam" (1998), three Logie Awards (two in 1990 for "Bangkok Hilton" and another in 1988 for "Vietnam"), two Satellite Awards (2009 Special Achievement Award for "Nine" and Golden Satellite Award for "Moulin Rouge!" in 2002), mention the name Nicole Kidman and you immediately open up a can of worms. It seems as though everyone wants to come down on her. It's a shame! A damn shame! Almost a crying shame! If Kidman was every bit as bad as many 'aussies' make out, I doubt she'd still be working today. Thankfully, "Rabbit Hole" should help dispels any doubts so called 'fans' have regarding her acting ability. Here she is better than her Oscar winning role as Virginia Woolf in "The Hours" and, I might add, the fine performance she gave as Grace Stewart in "The Others". I'm bringing up "The Others", because 90% of the time, it's the first film people bring up regarding Kidman's long list of credits. "Rabbit Hole" is an outstanding film and Kidman's performance as Becca has been rewarded with another (her third) Oscar® nomination. That should speak volumes to the 'nay-sayers' and doubters. As Becca, you can't take your eyes off her. Every second she's onscreen in character, she commands your utmost attention. Becca is a ticking time-bomb: one moment demanding your sympathy; the next shocking the socks off you with a vitriolic attack on those dearest to her. It has been reported that Kidman chose Aaron Eckhart to play opposite her. If so, it was an excellent decision. They work extremely well together. Eckhart's character Howie is a reverse image of Becca. How long he can take the mental anguish of what is happening to them no-one knows. But cracks are appearing. It's a fautless production thanks to an extremely good ensemble cast and a fine debut performance from Miles Teller. And, what is the "Rabbit Hole"? Sorry, you'll have to see the film to find out. Hampered by a limited release. Very Entertaining. 4 1/2 STARS." Who Is Playing Who?

Nicole Kidman Aaron Eckhart Dianne Wiest Miles Teller Tammy Blanchard Sandra Oh Giancarlo Esposito Jon Tenney Stephen Mailer Mike Doyle Roberta Wallach Patricia Kalember Ali Marsh Yetta Gottesman Colin Mitchell Deidre Goodwin Julie Lauren Rob Campbell

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Becca Corbett Howie Corbett Nat Jason Izzy Gaby Auggie Rick Kevin Craig Rhonda Peg Donna Ana Sam Reema Debbie Bob

The Production Team Directed by John Cameron Mitchell Screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire Adapted from the David Lindsay-Abaire play Produced by Nicole Kidman/Gigi Pritzker/Per Saari/Leslie Urdang/Dean Vanech Original Music by Anton Sanko Director of Photography Frank G DeMarco Film Editing by Joe Klotz Casting by Sig De Miguel & Stephen Vincent Production Design by Kalina Ivanov Art Direction by Ola Maslik Set Decoration by Diana Salzburg Costume Design by Ann Roth Run Time 91 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2011 - Lionsgate Films - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2011 - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian & International Copyright, Trademark Laws & Intellectual Property Rights.