When we meet fertility doctor Sarah Gregory she’s well put together, professional, and leading a neat and tidy life. By the time we say goodbye to Sarah, everything’s gotten messy and her grip on reality has been pried loose. What transpires that forces this decay in her mental state is alternatingly terrifying and disappointingly predictable in Run Rabbit Run.
Succession’s Sarah Snook stars as Sarah, mom to Mia and ex-wife of Pete. Sarah’s raising Mia and doing a terrific job of it until the day of Mia’s seventh birthday. The first hint of something unusual comes when Mia announces that she misses people she’s never met all the time. Sarah finds that quirky but brushes it off, unaware that statement’s about to play an integral role in what happens next.
Mom and daughter arrive home to an open garage door and a white rabbit gracing their doorstep. Still, Sarah’s barely concerned about either event.
Mia’s immediately taken with the rabbit, which happens to have been one of her favorite animals even before the creature mysteriously appeared at her front door. Where did it come from and why did it arrive on Mia’s birthday? To answer those questions, you must follow Sarah and Mia down the rabbit hole and watch as Sarah’s past trauma rears its ugly head and takes over their lives.
Sarah’s recently lost her beloved father and is estranged from her mother, Joan, a woman Mia has never met and knows nothing about. However, as Mia enters her seventh year, she suddenly begins to show a bizarre interest in Joan. And it’s not just that she wants to meet Joan; that would be strange and worrying. But Mia takes it a step further and insists she knows Joan.
As Mia’s detachment from Sarah increases, so does her level of resentment. Mia asks questions Sarah has no intention of answering until, finally, their relationship reaches a point where the only way to mend it is to allow Mia to visit Joan in a care center. (She’s been diagnosed with dementia.)
Rather than soothe the young girl, the visit with Joan drives a deeper wedge between Mia and Sarah. As Mia continues to insist that she’s not Sarah’s daughter, Sarah begins to unravel. Unwelcome memories resurface, and a traumatic event she’s attempted to block out invades her thoughts. The barrier she’s erected to retain her sanity and be able to function crumbles as Mia pushes all the right buttons and forces her mother to confront her past.
Director Daina Reed (Shining Girls, The Handmaid’s Tale) describes Run Rabbit Run as a modern-day ghost story, and Sarah Snook does a remarkable job of taking the audience through Dr. Sarah Gregory’s transformation from loving mom to a troubled woman haunted by her past. Snook’s particularly effective in portraying Sarah after her carefully curated life begins to unravel. There’s a startled, haunted look Snook affects that makes her character’s ultimate – but not unexpected – revelation genuinely feel like a deeply buried secret that’s only now bubbling to the surface, decades after a devastating tragedy.
First-time screenwriter Hannah Kent (author of Burial Rites and The Good People) lays the cards on the table too soon and Run Rabbit Run’s final act lands with more of a thud than the desired bang. The underlying themes of guilt and suppressed grief are fascinating to delve into but giving so much away early on mutes their exploration.
Despite powerful performances from Sarah Snook and newcomer Lily LaTorre, Run Rabbit Run is a psychological thriller that lacks teeth. Still, Snook and LaTorre make it watchable, even if the ending leaves much to be desired.
Run Rabbit Run screened as part of the Midnight section at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
GRADE: C+
Directed By: Daina Reid
Written By: Hannah Kent
Starring: Sarah Snook, Lily LaTorre, Damon Herriman, Greta Scacchi, and Trevor Jamieson
Running Time: 100 minutes
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