Video Contests, Film Festivals, and Awards

Film "Rabbit Hole" to Screen at Festival

By Staff
posted Oct 29, 2010, 05:03

Film "Rabbit Hole" to Screen November 3 at the Starz Denver Film Festival Gala Reception

In theaters: December 17th, 2010 Genre: Drama
Official Site: www.rabbitholefilm.com

Wednesday, November 03, 7:30 PM
USA, 2010, 92 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: Drama, Family Issues
Program: Red Carpet Presentations
Language: English

DIRECTOR: John Cameron Mitchell
Producer: Nicole Kidman, Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Per Saari
Editor: Joe Klotz
Screenwriter: David Lindsay-Abaire
Cinematographer: Frank G. DeMarco
Music: Anton Sanko
Principal Cast: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Sandra Oh, Dianne Wiest

For a pair of gifted actors like Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, a film adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize�winning play about the unraveling of a traumatized couple's once-happy marriage is a godsend�a rare opportunity to tackle an eloquent drama about the cruelty of fate. For John Cameron Mitchell�director of the edgy hits Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus�it's a chance to transform a top-of-the-line work for the theater into something new for the screen. All three of them hit their marks.

Becca and Howie Corbett have suffered every parent's worst nightmare: eight months earlier, their four-year-old son, Danny, chased the family dog into the street and was killed by a passing car. Now the Corbetts' grief is taking on unpredictable shapes. Howie drifts off into group therapy, where he enters into a friendship with another mourning parent (Sandra Oh), while Becca�with her sharp tongue and hair-trigger emotions�bristles at every perceived slight or misstep by friends and family. The drama takes a mysterious turn when the grieving mother undertakes her own odd relationship with the troubled young driver of the car that killed her son�motivated partly by rage, partly by empathy.

Neither Howie nor Becca has learned how to mourn, and day-to-day life in their once comfortable middle-class home has been reduced to a series of empty rituals as they struggle to save their marriage. The heartrending performances by Kidman and Eckhart are supplemented by that of Dianne Wiest as Becca's beleaguered mother and a tone-perfect screenplay by Lindsay-Abaire himself.
�Bill Gallo

The film will be followed by an on stage presentation of the 2010 Excellence in Acting Award and a conversation with Aaron Eckhart and John Cameron Mitchell moderated by Denver Post film critic Lisa Kennedy.

www.denverfilm.org