Posts tagged therapy
“Rabbit Hole” Movie as Therapy
Feb 15th
“Movie as Therapy”
RABBIT HOLE stars Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as Becca and Howie Corbett, whose four-year-old son Danny was killed eight months before the movie starts, and so you know it’s not a comedy.
The adaptation from the play of the same name, which won a Pulitzer Prize, is very good, but unfortunately the movie is not.
In fact, you could sum up the story with a simple “Woman loses son offscreen, woman loses husband on-screen, woman gets husband back, they heal.”
Roll credits.
Of course, both Kidman and Eckhart are good in their roles, and Kidman received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for this movie, but just as you have heard of a “one-trick pony,” this is a one-note movie.
The title comes from the title of a comic book created by one of the characters in the story, which deals with parallel universes, and Becca tells him that she likes that idea, because then the one we are in might be “just the sad version of us” and that “somewhere out there, I’m having a good time.”
See? Definitely not the feel-good movie of the year.
Becca lies to a neighbor who invites her and Howie over for dinner, saying they already have plans, when they don’t.
She and Howie haven’t talked at all about having another child, and they haven’t even had sex since Danny died.
She drops out of the group therapy sessions for couples who have lost a child that she and Howie have been attending when the discussions include too much God talk for her taste, especially when one grieving mother says that she takes comfort in believing that her child died because God wanted another angel.
And she starts lying to Howie when she befriends the teenage boy who was responsible for Danny’s death.
On the other hand, Howie is not entirely blameless, either, when the growing distance between Becca and him causes him to consider other ways to heal his grief, without telling Becca.
Becca’s grief causes her to lash out at her mother, played by Diane Wiest, and even her sister, who is planning to get married, but then the subplots feel more like failed attempts to add a couple extra notes to this one-note movie more than anything else.
RABBIT HOLE is pretty much movie as therapy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Rabbit Hole – Movie Trailer
Feb 10th
RABBIT HOLE is a vivid, hopeful, honest and unexpectedly witty portrait of a family searching for what remains possible in the most impossible of all situations.
Becca and Howie Corbett (NICOLE KIDMAN and AARON ECKHART) are returning to their everyday existence in the wake of a shocking, sudden loss. 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 Becca finds pain in the familiar, Howie finds comfort.
The shifts come in abrupt, unforeseen moments. Becca hesitantly opens up to her opinionated, loving mother (DIANNE WIEST) and secretly reaches out to the teenager involved in the accident that changed everything (MILES TELLER); while Howie lashes out and imagines solace with another woman (SANDRA OH). 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.
RABBIT HOLE is directed by John Cameron Mitchell (HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH) from a script by acclaimed playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The cast, led by Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman (THE HOURS, Actress in a Leading Role, 2002) and Golden Globe nominee Aaron Eckhart, includes two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest (HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, Actress in a Supporting Role, 1986; BULLETS OVER BROADWAY, Actress in a Supporting Role, 1994), Tammy Blanchard, Miles Teller, Giancarlo Esposito, Jon Tenney and Sandra Oh.
The Other Guys – Movie Trailer
Aug 11th
A desk-jockey detective and his tough-talking partner get their moment to shine in this buddy police comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, and directed by Adam McKay (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby). New York City detective Allen Gamble (Ferrell) is more comfortable pushing pencils than busting bad guys. A meticulous forensic accountant, his numbers are never off. Detective Terry Hoitz (Wahlberg) is Gamble’s reluctant partner. Try as Detective Hoitz might to get back on the streets, an embarrassing encounter with Derek Jeter has left a sizable black mark on his permanent record. Detectives Danson (Dwayne Johnson) and Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) are the complete opposites of Gamble and Hoitz: unwaveringly confident, they always get their man, and they do it with style to spare. When the time comes for Gamble and Hoitz to prove their mettle and save the day, their incompetence becomes the stuff of legend.