David Lindsay-Abaire wrote the screenplay based on his Pulitzer Prize winning play "The Rabbit Hole" and made what could have been an explosive melodramatic story into one that is sensitive and moves quietly along but is just as effective as if there was a lot of shouting going on.

When the film opens it has been 8 months since the 4 year old son of Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart)
ran into the street after his dog and was accidentally killed.We follow
them as they cope and are, or aren't, coping each in their own way.
There is only one brief flare up between them which flares and dies
quickly while showing the power that both are capable of as actors.

Along
the way we meet her Mother Nat (Dianne Wiest), and her sister Izzy
(Tammy Blanchard), the former having lost their brother when he was 30
and offers Becca advice. Becca sort of stalks, and then becomes friends
of a sort, with Jason (Miles Teller), the teenage boy who swerved the
car he was driving to miss the dog and hit her son killing him. Gabby
(Sandra Oh), has been attending the therapy group, that Becca and Howie
have recently joined, for 8 years since her son died and tries to make a
connection with the latter.

John Cameron Mitchell adds nothing visually as the director of the film which centers around the performances of Kidman and Eckhart,
the former giving another one of her icy, doll like emotionless
performances that allows you to see the feelings underneath and has
earned her an Oscar nomination. Eckhart is the more feeling, the heart on the sleeve, the emotions exposed yet
with a steel spine that just might get them both through the coming
years.

"The Rabbit Hole" handles a very emotional subject showing all sides moving along effectively without banging you on the head.