Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2011

Few films about grief can equal this finely observed story, adapted from his own Pulitzer-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire and directed by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Eight months after Nicole Kidman (in a career best) and Aaron Eckhart lose their four-year-old son in a car accident, they find themselves up against a debilitating emotional wall. This honest film is so immediate and poignant that some may find it simply too real. But Mitchell deftly avoids melodrama and manipulation, and tempers this uplifting downer with some brilliant moments of subtle amusement and warmth.