The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them

Greetings again from the darkness. It's tough and probably unfair to write about a film project when key pieces remain unseen. Writer/Director Ned Benson's brilliant first take on the story was released at Toronto Film Festival in two perspectives: "Him" and "Her". A massive re-edit produced "Them", this version released in theatres. As you might expect, knowledge that more exists ... and in probably a more effective story telling format ... renders us a bit frustrated with the blended version. Still, there is plenty here to warrant a look.

This viewer's frustration stems mostly from the long and winding road we travel understanding something tragic has caused the split between El (the titular Eleanor Rigby) and Conor. We are offered a brief glimpse of their happy times, but never get to know them as a happy couple. Instead, Conor is shown trying to re-assemble the pieces, while El tries to move on to a different puzzle altogether.

While the story unfolds in teeth-grinding fashion, it doesn't offset the powerful emotion and personal intensity brought to the screen by both James McAvoy (Conor) and Jessica Chastain (El). Mr. McAvoy has quietly evolved into one of the more interesting actors working, while Ms. Chastain proves herself to be among the best each time she crawls inside a role and makes it her own. We feel for each of them, before we even really know them at all.

Other superb work comes from a sterling supporting cast that includes screen vets William Hurt, Isabelle Huppert, Viola Davis and Ciaran Hinds; as well as Bill Hader, Jess Weixler and Nina Arianda. That's seven characters (plus the two leads) of which we yearn to learn more. Ms. Davis is especially effective in her all too brief appearance as a professor cutting El very little slack. And Mr. Hurt delivers a terrific monologue that strikes a chord.

So all of these wonderful pieces make for an spell-binding what-if that possibly gets answered in the dual-perspective version. The coldness and lack of understanding in the first 45 minutes can't offset the emotion and sadness that each character feels. Rumor has it that "Him" and "Her" will get their release this year, and if so, I'll be there in an attempt to complete both puzzles.

Yesterday, I went to see The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby for a pre-release screening by Louisiana International Film Festival. As the directorial debut for Ned Benson, this movie stars James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain as a young married couple that eventually crumbles. It is a combination of three short films: Him, told from the perspective of James McAvoy's character, Connor, Her, told from the perspective of Jessica Chastain's character, Eleanor, and Them, which features their relationship.

Truth be told, I wanted to like this movie a lot more. Some of the parts were very intriguing, and then some other parts were like watching paint dry. The romantic scenes with both of them together were the most interesting and fascinating. Their chemistry together was great, and their connection was felt and natural. With the two separate perspectives, however, I was drifting in and out. At one point, I even dozed off. Both perspectives were unbalanced, as I felt like there were more parts with Eleanor than there were with Connor. Or at least, I got more out of Eleanor than Connor. From Connor's side, it was a decent tale, but there wasn't a lot of his story coming out, and it wasn't very exciting or interesting, even with the addition of Stuart (Bill Hader). Eleanor's side was a lot more dominant, and it was a mixed bag. It provided more interest, thanks to the subplot with Eleanor and her sister Katy (Jess Weixler). At the same time, some of that was repelling. The actions and behaviors that I got came across as redundant, childish and stand-offish. In other words, the subplot has a yin and a yang.

The approach that Ned Benson took was very original and rare. He built a full-length story out of three short films that all tie in together. It's a very inventive approach, and someday, there's going to be a filmmaker out there that gets it 100% right. Sadly, for The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, the narrative structure felt disoriented. As a whole, the movie was lost in translation. The objective was understandable, which was to showcase how they fell in love and where the marriage fell apart, but it was tough to interpret that from beginning to end. Pulp Fiction is one of many examples that pull off a great movie with a non-linear narrative. This movie was nowhere near that level, but it did a good job in its efforts. Also, there were more things that I felt needed to be elaborated on. The story was lacking a lot of things that would've carried out the premise successfully. Instead, it only felt somewhat unfulfilled.

If I can separate those short films and judge them by themselves, they would've been very successful. They are very genuine stories, they had some almost superb acting performances, and their intentions were very smart. In my personal opinion, taking these three short films and merging them to create a 2-hour movie resulted in a jumbled narrative. The objective of the story got lost in the shuffle, the plan went halfway, or maybe too many ways, and in the end, there was some emptiness left inside. Not just for our two lead characters, but also for the viewer that went in with high expectations. Perhaps, they needed to be combined in order to tell the same story, but it would've been better off as a side-by-side collection of short films, or at least it should've been given a better structure. Yet, this was the movie that I ended up getting, which was OK overall, but I expected more. Eh, it happens.

Score: 50/100

So yes, I watched all the three movies before making any judgement. I only did it because I saw some comments on the movie (Them) saying that it was messy and then someone saying that it was best to watch the three to better understand. I started with Him, followed to Her version and ended with Them for chronological reasons. Some people say that Her is a better version, but I decided to stick to time factor and follow the directors way.

So is it worth it? *Really trying not to say any spoilers so I don't ruin it for you* Him really gets the guy perspective of everything that is happening around and we see only his version of events, his feelings everything about him. By now we don't really know what's happening and it seems just like a story about a break up.

With Her we get the girls version and here is were we really comprehend the trigger point. I love how they explore differences between the moments that we seem them together. I think it's pretty amazing because every time we put two people talking about things from their past, even though they lived it together, each of them always seems to have differences in their memories, so it's quite amazing to see it (a first time for me) in a movie.

Them it's the putting together of these two people. I confess I was a bit disappointed with this last version. I expected a little more after the first two movies and certainly a putting together of the pieces. Even though it still manage to surprise us with small differences of what we already seen. I guess after the first two I got my expectations high, but maybe it was too much. I tried watching it as I hadn't seen the other two and it was surprising how, even it seemed confusing at the beginning without seeing Him and/or Her, in the middle we get to understand things without they being showed to us.

The end was not absolutely what I was expecting. Here too I was expecting more. But somehow it managed to still conquer me. I guess on this part the soundtrack really gives an amazing help.

So yes, it's worth watching the three otherwise there are some little pieces that connect us to the story that you will lose. My advice: watch Him and Her and later watch Them. The soundtrack connects very well with the dynamic of the movie. This is a "dramance" and it's about love and lost so you can't expect much action or fairy tale ending. It's real life pouring on! Jessica Chastain and James Mcavoy perform it very well and what we have here is original cinema. Hope I've been helpful without spoiling.

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.

Apparently different versions exist. This IMDb site lists the running time as a little over two hours, but the version I saw was listed at well over three hours. It was very long, basically two movies back to back. Many of the scenes were shown twice, from the perspective of the two principals, with differences that were sometimes striking and sometimes very subtle. I found it fascinating, but I can imagine that some viewers will become impatient. (My bladder did -- don't go into this one with a large Coke.) I would like to see it again on video so I can go back and forth and compare versions of events, but I am worried that I'll end up renting a shorter version. The existence of different versions makes it a moving target -- it's difficult to review, and even more difficult for a prospective viewer to evaluate on the basis of published reviews, if you don't know which version the reviewer saw. They say the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is three days. Well, the difference between a good movie and a bad movie may be as little as three minutes, edited out or left in.

I'm giving this movie 9 stars because of a single line of dialog that blew me away and changed my perception of a lot of experiences in my own life. You can't ask for more than that from a movie. It's a comment made by one of the minor characters (the waitress) -- almost a throwaway line, really -- about the effect that people have on each other in relationships. I don't even know if it is included in the shorter version of the movie.