Rabbit Hole - Small 's' science and Small 'g' god

Rabbit Hole is a moving account of how a young couple deal with the loss of their little son. The movie is real depiction of complicated emotions accompanying grief and guilt. The husband and wife have different ways of dealing with grief which cause them to drift apart from each other. The husband relives the memories of his son whereas the wife wants to erase anything that would remind her of her son. The husband religiously attends trauma management classes, whereas the wife avoids them and withdraws into herself.

There are multiple levels at which the movie is emotionally complex. As the husband and wife drift apart, the husband feels attracted to another dovorciee. The wife, Nicole Kidman, develops an affection for the teenager. Kidman's mother too lost her son. She found her comfort in the Church and tries to get Kidman to go and find solace in religion.

God-talk enervates Nicole Kidman. She thinks people who depend on God for comfort are weak and naive and delusional. In one of the trauma  management classes, one of the other couples says, "God took our daughter because He needed a little Angel". Nicole Kidman spits out a reply, "If God wanted an Angel, why couldn't He make one for Himself". The couple look confused as though that thought had never occured to them.

Kidman resists every attempt made my her husband and mother to help her get over her reclusive self-destructive proclivities. After much emotional wrangling between the husband, mother and sister, Nicole Kidman realizes she needs some kind of novelty to relieve herself. She finds a sense of novelty in a complicated friendship with the teenager whose car had run-over her son, while he was chasing their dog across the street.

Friendship with this teenager gets her introduced to the idea of 'Parallel Universes'. 'Parallel Universe' is a scientific hypothesis that just like this universe that we live in, there are other parallel universes where events may occur in a different way. The teen explains that Nicole Kidman's son may still be alive in another parallel universe. This thought that her son may be alive on another universe gives her the comfort she was seeking.

She asks the teenager if parallel universes were true. He replies, "it is basic science, it is about whether you want to BELIEVE in it". There is no 'hard' proof for the existence of parallel universes. But if one wants to 'believe' in them one can. She believes in the theory of Parallel Universes and feels her burden lift. One may ask what difference does it make if one were to believe that the dead kid lives in a Parallel Universe or in Heaven. From a scientific perspective, not much, actually. Both in one sense are unfalsifiable theories.

The movie highlights a poignant irony. Some people find comfort in god others find comfort in science. But the kind of God  and the kind of Science they believe in is small 'g' god and and small 's' science. It is something that exists 'only in the mind' of the 'believer'. They get themselves to believe in whatever they want, whether it be their small 'g' god wanting little kids for Angels or their small 's' science creating parallel universes where dead kids live. The only criterion is whether or not it gives them comfort in facing the painful questions of life. They are just 'personal truths' which aren't universally true. 

In the movie, after finding her comfort in small 's' science of Parallel Universes and realizing that her novelty with the teenage was fleeting, she goes back to her husband and decides to start DOING SOMETHING to get involved again in normal life - hosting parties smiling at people and playing along.

This movie reflects the mantra of this age - Existentialism which says, "BELIEVE in anything that makes sense whether it is small 's' science or small 'g' god to quell the sense of loss. Then, DO SOMETHING that gives you a sense of novelty and self-worth and tarry through the pain of living this absurd life with as much sense of normalcy as possible".

The lead-up to the last scene of the movie is a party hosted by Nicole an her husband where there is much activity and everyone is smiles. As the party and festivities fade, the final shot of the movie is the emptiness and the unanswered angst in the face of the couple.

Existentialism can never give real answers, it can only give a temporary relief. Real answers can only be found in big 'G' God and big 'S' Science' which are not 'consoling figments of imagination' (personal truths) but are a part of the disturbing REALITY out THERE that has been revealed and discovered. Belief in 'G' God and 'S' Science implies that THERE is Truth out THERE which one has to submit to it. Most people find this submission disturbing and would rather live in the meaningless pain temporaly comforted by 'personal truths', rather than submit to the Truth out THERE and re-orient their life to the transcended Vision depicted by the Truth.