Oh, I wish I had seen this play during its Broadway run. Starring Cynthia Nixon and Tyne Daly, Rabbit Hole is a unique portrait of a family in grief. Nixon and John Slattery play a suburban couple whose young son was killed in an accident, and both react in different ways in the aftermath. John Gallagher Jr and Mary Catherine Garrison rounded out the five-hander at the Biltmore (now Friedman). Since it was an MTC production, it was a limited engagement but that didn’t keep David Lindsay-Abaire‘s play from walking away with the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as the Best Actress Tony for Nixon.
Now it’s been made into a film directed by John Cameron Mitchell with Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as the grieving couple. (Lindsay-Abaire adapted his own play for the screen). The movie had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last month to generally strong reviews, and all-out raves for Kidman’s performance (who’s already garnering early Oscar buzz). Dianne Wiest, Sandra Oh and Tammy Blanchard are also part of the cast. Its success at TIFF led to a deal with Lionsgate for theatrical release this fall. There were some clips released around its premiere, but here is a new trailer.
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I did see it at the Biltmore and was very disappointed. It soared to the lofty heights of a movie-of-the-week. Trite. Never much of a fan of Cynthia Nixon to start with, I was completely put off by her. Tyne Daly was good but sometimes too broad. General consensus that year was the Pulitzer committee should have withheld the award since there was nothing very good. Rabbit Hole was a weak play in an even weaker year.