The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: THEM
Directed by: Ned Benson
Written by: Ned Benson
Starring: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Bill Hader, Ciarán Hinds, Isabelle Huppert, William Hurt, Jess Weixler
Drama - 122 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 14 Sept 2014
Written by: Ned Benson
Starring: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Bill Hader, Ciarán Hinds, Isabelle Huppert, William Hurt, Jess Weixler
Drama - 122 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 14 Sept 2014
The Weinstein Company does not think you want to watch a three hour movie; therefore, they compelled writer/director Ned Benson to re-edit his two-film version of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, subtitled HIM and HER, into THEM. For his first feature film, Ned Benson wanted to explore the subjectivity within relationships. Even though two people are both present and interact in the exact same situation, they experience it differently and take away alternate memories; no two people remember the exact same thing. HIM was from the husband’s point of view and HER from the wife’s. The two films were supposed to be shown double feature style. Now, because the studio refused to release the films that way, Benson converted the two into THEM, a film I recommend, yet am fully aware cannot be nearly as impactful as the original material was meant to be seen.
How Jessica Chastain (2013's Mama) became attached to the project is one of the more interesting casting stories. She walked up to Benson after a sparsely attended screening of his first short film 11 years ago, way before she was famous, and said, “I want to work with you.” She became his friend and his first fan as the two worked on The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby off and on throughout the next decade. In all that time, I would hope they would have changed the title. Just about everyone who hears the title for the first time assumes it is a horror movie or kidnapping thriller. Few would guess it is an intense drama about love and loss.
How Jessica Chastain (2013's Mama) became attached to the project is one of the more interesting casting stories. She walked up to Benson after a sparsely attended screening of his first short film 11 years ago, way before she was famous, and said, “I want to work with you.” She became his friend and his first fan as the two worked on The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby off and on throughout the next decade. In all that time, I would hope they would have changed the title. Just about everyone who hears the title for the first time assumes it is a horror movie or kidnapping thriller. Few would guess it is an intense drama about love and loss.
Even though HIM and HER and now spliced together into THEM, the different styles are still apparent. Chastain’s Eleanor scenes are warm and shot with vibrant reds and yellows. The scenes with her husband Conor (Jame McAvoy, 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past) are cooler. They are shot in a blue-hued pallet. Eleanor’s fiery red hair is the only noticeable color. The two share just four scenes together so the subjectivity Ned Benson was hoping to achieve is impossible. The audience is left with the plot, two strong lead performances, a handful of impactful supporting roles, and the knowledge we are watching a studio film and not the director’s vision.
Eleanor and Conor recently experienced a tragedy. Eleanor is unable to cope with the fallout and takes off to stay with her parents unbeknownst to Conor. Left with minding his struggling Manhattan restaurant alongside his best friend and chef Stuart (Bill Hader, Saturday Night Live), Conor moves in with his estranged father (Ciarán Hinds, HBO's Game of Thrones). Eleanor enrolls in some college courses to take her mind off what she cannot bear to think about and tries not to disturb father Julian (William Hurt, 2014's Winter's Tale) and mother Mary (Isabelle Huppert, 2013's Dead Man Down). Viola Davis (2014's Get on Up) shows up as one of Eleanor’s professors.
Look at those names in the supporting cast. Each one of them had much longer character arcs in the original HIM and HER films and it is a shame to see some of them for just brief periods of time now. Viola Davis, William Hurt, and Isabelle Huppert are three actors any director would crave and to have their stories torn apart is a head-shaking cinematic crime. Hurt and Davis still produce effective performances and Hurt, who never comes up with the right words to say to his daughter, nails it at the end of the film telling a story which makes you wish his scenes were not sawed in half.
You can feel THEM is a mash-up of two other films, especially in the third act. The ending plods along and there are far two many closing scenes between characters the first two acts do not sufficiently set up. Both Eleanor and Conor interact with and attempt to tie up loose ends with their respective parents as much as they try and repair their relationship. A film which was supposed to be about love’s subjectivity strays a bit into another theme; all of us are reflections and reactions of our parents and their relationships. Eleanor at one point asks her father how on Earth he and her mom stayed together for so long. He gives the most truthful answer any of us could muster to such a rhetorical question, “Who knows?”
Whenever you read about how The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is about a couple’s relationship from different points of view, it is wrong. THEM is not about that at all, we see events through one prism, not two. We see neither HER version nor HIS, we see ours. Benson shot for the moon with his first feature film, really shooting two and trying to show them back-to-back. A more courageous studio would have given him the chance.
Whenever you read about how The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is about a couple’s relationship from different points of view, it is wrong. THEM is not about that at all, we see events through one prism, not two. We see neither HER version nor HIS, we see ours. Benson shot for the moon with his first feature film, really shooting two and trying to show them back-to-back. A more courageous studio would have given him the chance.
Comment Box is loading comments...
