7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The Corbett's are a happily married couple whose perfect world is forever changed when their young son, Danny, is killed in an accident. Ms Corbett tries to redefine her existence only to find solace in a mysterious relationship with a troubled young comic-book artist. Her fixation with him pulls her away from memories of her son, while Mr Corbett immerses himself in the past, seeking refuge in outsiders who offer him something Becca is unable to give. The Corbetts, both adrift, make surprising and dangerous choices as they choose the path that will determine their fate.
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest, Miles Teller, Tammy BlanchardDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
English, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Those of you reading this who are parents know exactly how much your lives changed when your children were born. Along with the sleepless nights of infanthood, the teething, the temper tantrums, the refusal to eat vegetables, along with the everyday ins and outs of managing your own personal “mini-me”, there’s an undeniable truth underlying every moment of your interaction with your progeny: you’re scared to death something bad might happen to them. Thus the rubber coverings on sharp corners, the plug protectors in all the sockets, the gates on the stairs, and other accoutrements of incipient parenthood. But even deeper, and cast probably more in a layer of protective denial than these shallower fears, is the dreaded awareness of mortality, of the outright frightening fact that worst case scenarios might involve the death of your child. You see the horrifying articles in the newspaper or on the evening news of children ripped from the living by car crashes, unexpected illnesses and other vagaries of fate that have left other parents in emotional bankruptcy. You pray the same thing never happens to you. Even more than with your spouse, you suddenly realize that in a very real way you would trade your own life to protect the lives of your offspring. It’s something that those without children can’t fully understand, but it’s a bond of fear and responsibility (mixed of course with overwhelming love) that unites all parents. And it’s that bond, now frayed perhaps beyond repair, that is at the heart of Rabbit Hole, the small scale indie film based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play by David Linday-Abaire (who adapted his play for this film version) which brought Nicole Kidman her most recent Academy Award nomination. A quiet but often devastating meditation on the after effects of the loss of a child, Rabbit Hole isn’t showy or overly histrionic, but in that very tamped down ethos it explores a wealth of emotional responses to an overwhelming tragedy.
All but the last sequence of Rabbit Hole was filmed with the digital Red camera, and so the texture of this AVC encoded 1080p transfer (in 2.35:1) may strike some as overly "video" looking, despite Mitchell and DP DeMarco's insistence that's there as much detail in this hi-def video format as with traditional film. What's instantly apparent is a "smoother" look (for wont of a better term) than traditional film stock, with a relative lack of grain. Colors are just slightly desaturated here, perhaps by design, giving the film a less than robust appearance some of the time. In fact it's notable that the last sequence of the movie, which was filmed with a traditional 35mm camera, boasts noticeably more "peachy" (to quote DeMarco) hues, and a much deeper looking texture. All of this said, clarity, sharpness and detail are excellent throughout this enterprise, though midrange shots suffer from occasional softness and there are some passing issues with aliasing on some closeknit costumes and some outdoor shots of leaves.
It seems positively odd that a quiet film like Rabbit Hole should be granted a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix. It's even more odd when this film doesn't really exploit, or in fact need to exploit, the surround channels. This is a small scale, dialogue driven film, and as such, the surround channels typically come into play courtesy of the minimal underscore and some passing ambient environmental sounds. In fact the only really immersive moments in this film are in noisier crowd scenes, as when Becca ventures into New York City or in the family scene at the bowling alley. There's certainly nothing wrong with this track by any stretch of the imagination; it presents everything cleanly and clearly and effects, dialogue and score are all artfully mixed and well positioned around the soundfield. It just seems like a bit of sonic overkill, at least theoretically speaking, especially when there isn't that much opportunity for surround channel utilization to begin with.
As a parent myself, and one who is not ashamed to admit that, yes, I have the very fears talked about in this review, I dreaded having to watch Rabbit Hole. Imagine my surprise, then, at watching a film that doesn't wallow in sorrow or pathos, and in fact delivers a couple of hearty laughs along the way. Kidman is simply fantastic in this role, and she's matched every step of the way by the stellar supporting cast. The film is unexpectedly artfully directed by John Cameron Mitchell, and, though dealing with a relatively smaller scale, Rabbit Hole hits some very big emotional moments flawlessly. Highly recommended.
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