Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart star as a husband and wife inconsolable after the death of their young son. Adapted by David Lindsay-Abaire from his own play, this quiet but uncompromising drama explores the isolating power of grief in the same way as Todd Field's
In the Bedroom (2001). But whereas that film developed into a story about the allure and futility of revenge, this one acknowledges the unhappy truth that there's no emotional resolution for a parent grieving over a child. Unmoored by the tragedy, the spouses drift apart—he considers an affair with another bereaved mother, she pursues an awkward rapprochement with the guilt-ridden teenage driver who ran over their boy—and the only question seems to be whether they'll ever manage to share in the pain. John Cameron Mitchell directed, making an impressive detour in style and subject matter after his flamboyant
Shortbus (2006) and
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001).
By
J.R. Jones