Rabbit Hole

At first glance, “Rabbit Hole’’ is this year’s entry in Oscar’s semiannual grief-porn category. Look at the posters, the trailers, the stills — surely this tale of parents coping with the death of their 5-year-old son is a sensitive and thoroughly depressing downer. Well, no, it’s more than that — a lot more. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire, brought to the screen by the quixotically gifted playwright-turned-filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch,’’ “Shortbus’’)

What makes someone want to start a business? That was what the young economist Philipp Koellinger was trying to figure out in 2008. His survey data showed that entrepreneurs thought differently from other people—that they believed in themselves more, feared failure less, and tended to see opportunities where others saw threats. Koellinger wanted to know why. "We were left with ‘explanations' that begged further explanations," he said in an e-mail. "What was at the bottom of this rabbit hole, we wondered?"

"Rabbit Hole" is as close to unbearable as you can imagine. That's what makes it work. Anyone who read about the play's Broadway run last season, which brought it five Tony nominations, knows that it's about a family grieving the death of a child. But the starkness of that description cannot begin to convey the acuity and power of David Lindsay-Abaire's play, now making its Boston debut at the Huntington Theatre Company. Describing the plot also threatens to put "Rabbit Hole" into Lifetime Movie territory, where it absolutely does not belong.

RE "OCCUPY'S court win preempts eviction: Temporary order bars park removal" (Page A1, Nov. 17): Is Boston stuck in a Lewis Carroll novel? How can a judge, or anyone, be so illogical as to misconstrue irresponsible encampment on public property, to the detriment of local business, as a protection of freedom of speech? Who is barring Occupy Boston from speaking? It appears that Boston, or at least our justice system, has fallen down the rabbit hole. June Hatfield Lexington

What makes someone want to start a business? That was what the young economist Philipp Koellinger was trying to figure out in 2008. His survey data showed that entrepreneurs thought differently from other people—that they believed in themselves more, feared failure less, and tended to see opportunities where others saw threats. Koellinger wanted to know why. "We were left with ‘explanations' that begged further explanations," he said in an e-mail. "What was at the bottom of this rabbit hole, we wondered?"

1Q84 By Haruki Murakami Translated, from the Japanese, by Jay Rubin and Phillip Gabriel Knopf, 925 pp., $30.50 Like the man in Wallace Stevens's poem, Haruki Murakami plays things on his blue guitar, and not as they are except in a bent universe of uneasy displacements. In such novels as "A Wild Sheep Chase" and "Hard Boiled Wonderland," the up-to-date world of comfortable Japanese consumerism is a thin-ice cover over sink holes of the uncanny. Falling into them, Murakami's protagonists tend to engage our minds rather than our emotions.

RE "OCCUPY'S court win preempts eviction: Temporary order bars park removal" (Page A1, Nov. 17): Is Boston stuck in a Lewis Carroll novel? How can a judge, or anyone, be so illogical as to misconstrue irresponsible encampment on public property, to the detriment of local business, as a protection of freedom of speech? Who is barring Occupy Boston from speaking? It appears that Boston, or at least our justice system, has fallen down the rabbit hole. June Hatfield Lexington

BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (Comcast Movies: All Movies) Soccer moms, start your minivans. Director Gurinder Chadha’s cross-cultural comedy falls into the genre pioneered by “The Full Monty’’ and “Billy Elliot’’ — it’s predictable but extremely charming. The lithe, moody Parminder K. Nagra plays a Sikh teenager in London whose love of the game leads her to play for a local women’s team, to her traditional family’s horror. (PG-13; runs through Jan. 31)

17 AGAIN (Comcast Movies and Events) The latest body-transference comedy stars Zac Efron as a high school kid who grows up to be Matthew Perry, then gets his wish to be Zac Efron again. The star is lightweight and likable, and the movie surrounds him with farcical pros like Leslie Mann and Thomas Lennon (above right, with Efron). (PG-13; runs through Jan. 1) TY BURR CORALINE (Comcast Movies and Events) A darkly invigorating stop-motion tour down the rabbit hole of childhood anxieties, courtesy of animator Henry Selick (“The Nightmare Before...

NEW YORK -- "The Drowsy Chaperone," a daffy musical about one fan's favorite 1920s show, garnered 13 Tony nominations yesterday, including best musical. Close behind with 11 was "The Color Purple," the Oprah Winfrey-produced musical based on Alice Walker's novel about a determined woman's triumph over adversity. The revival of "The Pajama Game" got nine bids, while tied at eight were "Jersey Boys," the gritty show-biz tale of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and the revival of "Awake and Sing!"

1Q84 By Haruki Murakami Translated, from the Japanese, by Jay Rubin and Phillip Gabriel Knopf, 925 pp., $30.50 Like the man in Wallace Stevens's poem, Haruki Murakami plays things on his blue guitar, and not as they are except in a bent universe of uneasy displacements. In such novels as "A Wild Sheep Chase" and "Hard Boiled Wonderland," the up-to-date world of comfortable Japanese consumerism is a thin-ice cover over sink holes of the uncanny. Falling into them, Murakami's protagonists tend to engage our minds rather than our emotions.

NEW YORK — With regard to dramas set in South Boston, the law of diminishing returns is bound to kick in at some point. But not yet. Not when Southie can inspire a play like David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Good People,’’ which maps the fault lines of social class with a rare acuity of perception while also packing a substantial emotional wallop. “Good People,’’ which opened last night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in a Manhattan Theatre Club production directed by Daniel Sullivan, is studded with references to the clam rolls at Sully’s, Whitey Bulger,...

BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (Comcast Movies: All Movies) Soccer moms, start your minivans. Director Gurinder Chadha’s cross-cultural comedy falls into the genre pioneered by “The Full Monty’’ and “Billy Elliot’’ — it’s predictable but extremely charming. The lithe, moody Parminder K. Nagra plays a Sikh teenager in London whose love of the game leads her to play for a local women’s team, to her traditional family’s horror. (PG-13; runs through Jan. 31)

At first glance, “Rabbit Hole’’ is this year’s entry in Oscar’s semiannual grief-porn category. Look at the posters, the trailers, the stills — surely this tale of parents coping with the death of their 5-year-old son is a sensitive and thoroughly depressing downer. Well, no, it’s more than that — a lot more. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire, brought to the screen by the quixotically gifted playwright-turned-filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch,’’ “Shortbus’’)

17 AGAIN (Comcast Movies and Events) The latest body-transference comedy stars Zac Efron as a high school kid who grows up to be Matthew Perry, then gets his wish to be Zac Efron again. The star is lightweight and likable, and the movie surrounds him with farcical pros like Leslie Mann and Thomas Lennon (above right, with Efron). (PG-13; runs through Jan. 1) TY BURR CORALINE (Comcast Movies and Events) A darkly invigorating stop-motion tour down the rabbit hole of childhood anxieties, courtesy of animator Henry Selick (“The...

"Rabbit Hole" is as close to unbearable as you can imagine. That's what makes it work. Anyone who read about the play's Broadway run last season, which brought it five Tony nominations, knows that it's about a family grieving the death of a child. But the starkness of that description cannot begin to convey the acuity and power of David Lindsay-Abaire's play, now making its Boston debut at the Huntington Theatre Company. Describing the plot also threatens to put "Rabbit Hole" into Lifetime Movie territory, where it absolutely does not belong.

NEW YORK — With regard to dramas set in South Boston, the law of diminishing returns is bound to kick in at some point. But not yet. Not when Southie can inspire a play like David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Good People,’’ which maps the fault lines of social class with a rare acuity of perception while also packing a substantial emotional wallop. “Good People,’’ which opened last night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in a Manhattan Theatre Club production directed by Daniel Sullivan, is studded with references to the clam rolls at Sully’s, Whitey Bulger, and the Sugar...

NEW YORK -- "The Drowsy Chaperone," a daffy musical about one fan's favorite 1920s show, garnered 13 Tony nominations yesterday, including best musical. Close behind with 11 was "The Color Purple," the Oprah Winfrey-produced musical based on Alice Walker's novel about a determined woman's triumph over adversity. The revival of "The Pajama Game" got nine bids, while tied at eight were "Jersey Boys," the gritty show-biz tale of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and the revival of "Awake and Sing!"