I went into Rabbit Hole knowing only what the movie's marketing summary said about it, "Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident." So I was expecting the usual parents dealing with grief at a slow pace that is sometimes interrupted with explosions of rage, guilt or other human emotion. And while Rabbit Hole did follow this structure for the most part, the handling of all the details and the amazing acting moved the story along in interesting and heartbreaking ways.

The film begins by introducing us to Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) who eight months previous lost their four-year old son in a traffic accident. While the story unfolds slowly, it is not dragged out for cheap effect. Rather, we watch these two suburbanites go through their daily routine in a quiet way, but with this new thing between them that neither of them really knows what to do with.

In all ways but one, the lives that Becca and Howie lead seem idyllic. They have a beautiful house in a quiet, gorgeous neighborhood. Becca is a housewife, Howie earns enough, apparently, to keep them both in a very nice lifestyle. Howie is still able to function at his job every day. Becca is still baking and gardening like a crazy person.

Luckily some "real people" enter the story — Becca's Mom, Nat (Dianne Wiest) and sister Izzy (Tammy Blanchard). Here are two people with some serious flaws. But the most interesting thing is watching Becca interact with her family. No one quite seems to know how to navigate Becca's almost lack of emotional response to the loss of her son. Nat tries to push her to discuss every feeling and thought by constantly relaying her grief over losing her own son, Becca's brother who died of a heroin overdose at the age of 30. Instead of feeling consoled or understood, Becca bristles at the comparison of losing her innocent young boy to Nat losing her adult, drug-addicted son.

There is plot shift in the story that hit me in the gut and grounded me in the story in a way that pushed me deeper in the lives of these characters. However, I am going to resist sharing the plot details, as I think the surprise of it holds its own power in the story.

Despite its somewhat sleepy pacing, a lot happens in this story. Becca and Howie deal with their grief in very different ways. They are both desperately trying to navigate this new terrain, even though neither of them really appear desperate at all. Their grief is human and complicated and raw, yet in the end, it is almost peaceful in its basic integrity.

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