Nicole Kidman as the bereaved mother looks fragile and close to breaking point. Her nerves stand out and throb through her porcelain skin and your heart breaks just looking at her. Aaron Eckhart as her husband also does a good job as the husband trying to cope in his own way with the loss. The supporting cast is competent. The relationship that the mother forms with the boy whose car killed her son is interesting.
There are well known theories on dealing with grief which says that people go through different stages roughly broken down into denial, anger, depression, acceptance and hope. The story sensitively takes you through these stages. It reaches the end with a reiteration of faith in love and commitment and the healing one can find therein.
Though the movie is well acted and is not melodramatic in anyway it still hits where it hurts.Badly. Academically, its ok to think about grief but as a parent I reacted emotionally to it and wanted to avoid thinking about it. They say not all cinema is meant to entertain. It is also meant to make you think or feel inside your core but it made me feel depressed and sad. And that I get enough of from the headlines everyday anyway. Now you decide.
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