Not every film must conclude with a happy ending. For some works, permitting the protagonists to achieve some progress is more satisfying than any Hollywood ending. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart star in Rabbit Hole, playing Becca and Howie, two parents grieving over the loss of their young child. Both parents navigate their grief in different ways, encountering other characters who have also lost a child like Becca’s mother and Gaby from their support group, in addition to Jason, the teenaged driver involved in the car accident which killed their son. In one sense, Rabbit Hole is another one of …
The Dark Knight and The Graduate
Over the weekend I watched two films, The Dark Knight in IMAX and The Graduate on DVD. Directors Christopher Nolan and Mike Nichols created two excellent films but only one of the two is truly an all-time great (despite what IMDB’s All-Time Ratings indicate at the moment). On the six-storey IMAX screen, The Dark Knight is spectacular. Panoramic shots are crystal clear and one can appreciate the scale of Gotham City. The monologues and dialogues are even more intense; the size of the presentation does great justice to the performances of Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, and Aaron Eckhart. But the …