The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her

I began watching this movie, expecting it to be another romantic flick, but boy was I wrong. There is nothing 'film-like' about the movie, it actually seems like a slice of life itself, and that is what makes it so beautiful. Both the co-stars, James and Jessica, have a terrific chemistry and their acting is absolutely breathtaking. Even the supporting actors (including the legendary Viola Davis) have a titular role throughout the film. The direction of the movie seems a bit haphazard and one might find their attention slightly wavering had it not been for the gripping performances by the actors. I do believe that 'Him' and 'Her' complement each other well, however, 'Them' seemed redundant in comparison to the other two.

The sadness of being an incorrigible completist, I have to finish all these three films before writing my review, Ned Benson's ambitious feature-length debut is a post-trauma story of a young couple Conor (McAvoy) and Eleanor (Chastain) in New York after losing their child in an unspecified accident, HIM centres on Conor and HER centres on Eleanor in the same time period, then interweaves these two versions together, there arrives THEM, one can get an overall view of their paralleled life. So basically, I have watched the same movie twice, and certain scenes three times where the path of Conor and Eleanor converges.

The premise is soundingly intriguing, as often cornily referred as two separate cerebral hemispheres, the film allows viewers to observe how men and women think and act differently towards the same scenario, in this case, a heartbroken tragedy. In HIM, the movie starts with one of their most intimate memory before their bereavement, an inadvertent thrill in their ordinary life sparks strong romance with Conor amorously says: "There is only one heart in this body, please have mercy on me". Then it jumps to several months of the aftermath, Eleanor uses an extreme method to declare that their life can not sustain as the status quo, they need to take a break. Conor doesn't understand why she needs her alone-time for her grievance, he is equally heartbroken, but he is ready to move on, leaving the tragedy behind with a seal on it, not to mention and keeps living on afterwards. He opens a bar with his best friend Stuart (Hader) and a flirty barmaid Alexis (Arianda) who is ready to "falling in love with him madly if he allows her". Meanwhile his father Spencer (Hinds) owns a successful restaurant named after Conor's mother, whom he dumped ages ago, it is also a thorny decision for him whether or not to swallow his pride to admit failure and take the restaurant inasmuch as his bar is on the brink of bankrupt, it is a privileged struggle as a rich kid's blues.

In HER, no romantic prologue, Eleanor is introduced in her abrupt suicidal behaviour, then she returns to her bourgeoisie parents living in the suburb (played by Hurt and Huppert, he is a university professor and she is French), she goes back to the college and takes a class of professor Lillian Friedman (Davis), before long Conor finds out her whereabouts, stalks her in the street, in the classroom and eagerly to reconnect. As Hurt carefully phrases "Tragedy is a foreign country, we don't know how to talk to the natives", Conor's tentative makeup doesn't work, Eleanor needs to be over-indulged in the past for some time before finally moving forward, plus, she can spend all the time she wants in Paris, to heal her wounds, after a whimsical but failed reconnection during a pouring rain and a vis-a-vis opening-up in the middle of the night, it is rather tedious for her to realise that she should take a real break out of the Tri-state area. The disparity erected between each and every individuals cannot be compromised, only when they arrive in the same page with the same pace, they may have a chance to start anew as a couple.

As often as he can, Benson intends to throw snappy verbal rejoinders to sound posh or vivacious, but most of the time they are ill-placed ("Now YOU sound maternal" throwaway) and uninspired, as most of the dialogues verge on beating around the bush either without any substantial function or being painstakingly predictable. Yet the two leads is recommendable in any rate, so it is safe to say the film is perfect for McAvoy and Chastain's stalwarts, both set off a full gamut of emotional overhaul and not to mention many close-ups to let their fans luxuriate in the idolatry. Among the eclectic supporting cast, Huppert radiates in every scene simply by holding a glass of red wine in her hand, and Davis thrusts her raw gravitas into her casual bantering with her THE HELP (2010, 8/10) co- star, as an outsider, she is the one who pierces through the surface without any scruples, only if she could have more screen time in it.

The indie soundtrack is an understandable trapping of the prevalent mumblecore output, it's ambient, moody and meditative, tailor-made to outline the disposition of the storyline. Collectively speaking, the films attempt to be artistic and unique, it could have hit the bull- eye with all such a talented group, only if it could subtract the permeating tint of narcissism, and conjure up some more salient epiphany. At last, the THEM version abridges some minor sequences and merges HIM and HER with an intact take on the proceedings. There is no new scenes added, so one can choose to watch HIM and HER, or THEM, either is sufficiently competent to disclose its allure and drawbacks.

The Disppearance Of Eleanor Rigby (nothing to do with the Beatles song except a brief reference by a character) is a thoughtful, exceptionally well made film about a couple dealing with an immense tragedy that has put a weight on their relationship, forcing them to take some time apart. James Macavoy, an actor who continues to impress, and Jessica Chastain, always amazing, play the two with diligent feeling and palpable hurt. Now, there's three different edits of the film. His, which is mostly his side of events following the breakup, where Macavoy takes center stage and we see his life. Hers, which shows us where Chastain ends up, and how she is coping. The third version, Theirs, is a truncated version of both stories, leaving out a lot of key scenes and important beats. His and Hers together come out to about four hours of movie watching, but if you're going to invest yourself in their story, you owe it to you self to watch them both, starting with His. Because there is four hours of their story, they are allowed to develop and interact in a fashion that feels far more genuine and lifelike than a rushed two and a half hour movie. Macavoy is an aspiring cook who runs a small café with his friend and sous chef (Bill Hader, fiercely funny) and yearns for Chastain, angry at life for throwing them the curveball it did. He moves in with his father (Ciaran Hinds gives phenomenal work), a successful restauranteer. Chastain moves in with her folks as well, played by Isabelle Huppert and William Hurt. Hurt, who hasn't been around that much lately, makes up for that by anchoring a key scene with Chastain. It's interesting that he gets to play her father in a film, because they both share a measured, baleful, hypnotic grace in their work, and seeing them interacting was a treat for me, being an immense fan of both their work. Now, the film is more than the sum of its parts, but I mean that in a good way, since the parts themselves are so brilliantly done as well. It's what we expect from the romantic drama Avenue, but because we see an extended fluidity to the work, a narrative free from the fractured conventions of usual editing styles, we feel right there with our two protagonists, every step of the way. More films should break the mold and try to be more than just segmented movies, and use immersion techniques like this to draw us in. Coupled with that unique method of delivery comes a sincere commitment from actors and director alike, to explore an aspect of life and relationships that many see as unpleasant or upsetting, yet can still make for beautiful work. Well worth a watch.

This film tells the story of a married couple who separates because of tremendous grief after losing their child. This grieving process is told from her perspective.

"The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her" is great because Jessica Chastain is brilliant in portraying a woman tormented by loss. We see that her interaction with friends is affected, and family ties are disrupted. The scene of her and her sister struggling on the floor is very effective. It's almost heartbreaking to watch it.

My only complain is that it is just to similar to "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them". It's almost like watching the same film again. Of course, that's not the fault of ",The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her", but the fault of "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them" not using a balanced proportion of footage.

It's always great when festival films can hold onto that excitement even over a year from their premiere. Perhaps that magic comes from the intrigue in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby's conceit. The content of the film is nothing new, just approached in a special way. A couple drift apart due to an unspeakable tragedy and try to make sense of the world. Sprinkled with introspective insights and anchored by terrific performances, it's truly bolstered through its enigma. Now I decided to watch Her first, arguably the more acclaimed of the pair, at least for Jessica Chastain. Although the director states that the films can be watched in any order, the premiere started with Him and in hindsight perhaps it offers key context that I should've dived into first, but I quite prefer the way I watched it even though the latter suffered.

Knowing that it has a counterpart film gives Her an enigma and the film is enchanting, benefiting from a sparing use of James McAvoy. This is the Chastain show and she's the best I've seen her so far. Sometimes it teeters on being quirky for the sake of quirkiness the way indie movies do, but its subversive way it acknowledges and rejects clichés rings too true and dig deep. Perhaps as a result it is quite clichéd, but the nuanced and heavy hearted texture of the film with the soft autumnal cinematography and use of music makes it a human experience. It's such a melodic, delicate, intimate, introspective, melancholic and ultimately heartbreaking look at the pain of moving on, emotionally and in Eleanor Rigby's case, physically as she finds herself compelled to drift from place to place hoping that she can start fresh but never does. It's very satisfying that the film met high expectations, at least this half of the experiment.

8/10