Rabbit Hole (*****)

While I consider 2010 to be a fantastic year for movies, I would still only consider a handful of them to be truly moving and revelatory pieces of cinema. Rabbit Hole in that sense is one of the best movies of the year, an honest, tragic, and inspired look at the lives of two people destroyed over the death of their son.

Nicole Kidman. Aaron Eckhart. While both have made fine films in the past, they give career-best performances in Rabbit Hole. The level of frustration and grief required in roles like these could easily be overdone and melodramatic, but these two actors understand the great balancing act required. What we are left with are two of the most honest and thought-out leading roles of the year.

Kidman is a revalation. The Others, Moulin Rouge, The Hours... Had she not recently won an Oscar for her turn as Virginia Woolf, this would be a shoe-in for the win. The majority of the film accounts for the suppression of her grief, all building up to one of the most heartbreaking and visceral emotional breakdowns I have ever seen on film. Aaron Eckhart's character is more focused on preserving the past, yet his frustrations are more visible and we are never quite sure who is the more stable in the relationship.

Rounding off one of the greatest casts of the year is Dianne Wiest, another Oscar winner (2 times) who would be a shoe-in for the win any other year. Wiest perfectly encapsulates the role of Kidman's mother, a woman also familiar with the death of a child, yet the two are never quite able to see eye to eye.

The film is a masterpiece in the way it documents the quiet lifestyle of the 'suburban family' and how isolated people truly are from one another. Although the film is heavily weighted down with mature and grim themes, there is still a great sense of wit and dark humor infused throughout the film. That is not to say it's a black comedy - but it does work so perfectly well as a means to create a full picture and emotionally-satisfying film. This film easily ranks right alongside Ordinary People, another masterful film dealing with similar topics of loss and separation.

Emotionally, this film left me devastated. It is rare that you see such a sophisticated level of film making on display. While this film is clearly a showcase for the actors, it is still one of the best of the year. Why Aaron Eckhart or Dianne Wiest aren't receiving more nominations for their work is frustrating and completely baffling to me. Likewise for the director and screenwriter especially. Hopefully, come Oscar nominations, Rabbit Hole will be duly rewarded.

(Awards potential: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Kidman), Best Actor (Eckhart), Best Supporting Actress (Wiest), Best Adapted Screenplay)