The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them
September. 12,2014 RA New York couple's relationship is tested after the loss of their child. This film is the wide-released combination of the original two :him and :her volumes that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
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Reviews
To me, this movie is perfection.
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby has had an interesting history since its debut at the Toronto film festival. The film, following a couple who have broken up, was first shown in two versions labelled Him and Her. Starring Jessica Chastain and James MacAvoy, these were separate films showing their different perspectives of their relationship. In Australian cinemas though is "Them" which first screened at the Cannes Film Festival and is the two films edited together. These three films are directed by New York filmmaker Ned Benson, who has a degree in film and English from Columbia University. It's unusual for a first time filmmaker to acquire a star the calibre of Jessica Chastain. She has known him for over ten years. She first approached him after seeing one of his short films and they once dated and lived together. Although he wrote one part of Eleanor Rigby prior to their relationship, the male side, Chastain was the one who suggested he write a female perspective as well.The film opens with Conor (McAvoy) and Eleanor (Chastain) having a meal together at restaurant. They decide that one after the other they will run out without paying. The notion is that they are chasing each other and inseparable in their love. In the following sequence, the camera traces the back of Eleanor on a bridge. We don't see her face, only the back of her head. She walks alone and out of the frame she attempts to throw herself the bridge. She's rescued from the water and hospitalised. It is revealed she attempted to take her life because she lost her child. She is back living at home with her parents, including her French mother (Isabelle Huppert), and her father a psychology professor (William Hurt) who is constantly trying to aid her and enrol her in a course run by Professor Friedman (Viola Davis). She is also trying to escape from Conor who is trying to talk to her about their relationship since they split. He is working unhappily in a bar with his best friend Stuart (Bill Hader) who is a chef and arguing with their customers. Conor is distanced from his own father (Ciaran Hynes), who he believes is losing his mind.Something about this film wasn't very satisfying for me. It is largely due to the pacing, which to be blunt is glacial, verging on deathly. At two hours the film is far too long and drawn out and needed serious pruning. Him and Her are apparently significantly shorter, running at 90 and 100 minutes and currently available on iTunes. Compounding the pacing issues is that the longer Them continues the more it loses all of its dramatic thrust. The opening scenes are strong, specifically the dramatisation of contrasting emotions and scenarios between the couple when they're having fun together to when they're on a knife-edge. It creates a mystery about what happened to their relationship in between these climaxes. There are also intense scenes where Conor follows Eleanor into her class and the stalker-like nature of these scenes is highly involving. I watched these rather chilling scenes with great anticipation.Unfortunately, the rest of Eleanor Rigby, though not without humour, is slow and dull. The mood and the lack of drive in Benson's script is a deliberate technique to show the immobility of the characters but also one he trips over. Conor is pursuing Eleanor aimlessly while they both resist help and attachment from their parents. But typifying the lack of incident and movement in the script is a belated moment where Conor bemoans his life and compares it to a boat wreck. At this point it was tempting to call out: "Do something about it!" The two lead actors are fine and committed to bring raw emotions to try and humanise the idea of inertia and grief in Conor and Eleanor respectively. But as a film about either of these ideas it doesn't reach any particular new or dramatically memorable moments. The characters, except Bill Hader who brings much needed humour, are mopey rather than vividly drawn. It pales compared to a film like Blue Valentine, which I found more involving as a story and personally rewarding because of my investment in the characters.
Are these people at Hollywood playing a biggest joke or is it a part of some trap like a heist or something just for the sake of robbing cash from the people in the audience making a fool out of them by inserting fake Oscar winning actors no story and proper narrative little sex and slow pace on purpose only to satisfy critics and win more Oscars the cycle keeps on going it never stops.OK enough of my rant above here is what makes me really mad it is films like these that are totally unnecessary boring long stretched never ending sad tragic love or tragedy stories like these are releasing likes pieces of candy bars from vending machine,please stop it.Whatever the genre is the collective set of films are good only if the narrative needs the extension little variation in characters otherwise it is just another usual TV series a great example is the sunset trilogy of Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy something like that gives the viewer some entertainment and keeps them hooked but this so called film is pure embarrassing.The disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is divided into three parts him,her & them released in 2013 & 2014 respectively i have not seen him and her but i checked this out and wow i was kicking myself i mean what a waste of good money i could have given it to some needy person instead.The Cast:first of all what the hell was James McAvoy doing here the whole time his expressions were like "not interested" in this lame script,Jessica Chastian who is also one of the producers of this she looks drunk in every scene what type of sleepy acting is this may i ask must be something that even Al Pacino would watch and say wow this lady has surpassed us but of course in sarcasm.The Plot:is there a plot in this film hell no it is just about a couple going through difficult times but keep on behaving like idiots they are trying too hard to get back with each other knowing the relationship wont work anymore.Connor is useless guy who hangs out at bars and roads and Eleanor is a worthless student argues with her teacher both these fools never listen to any advice from anyone at all.What a stupid and most pointless film this was what ever that perspective angle storyline of Eleanor by herself & by Connor was the chemistry never works out why bother.The title is wrong too she never disappears not physically but from Connor's life.to understand what was this subject about one does not simply(quoting Boromir from Lotr)have to see all 3 films this one is haunting me already.This film is quite disturbing can cause some serious brain damage i am warning people not to fall for the critics faked positive reviews this project is absurd and beyond ridiculous.Overall The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby:Them 2014 is a solid waste of time & money my rating is 1/10.Avoid it
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.
Sorry, but I had trouble understanding the words that the characters were speaking. This was particularly true for Jessica Chastain's mother with a French accent. Was this intentional for some unknown reason? OK, so there were 3 different versions of the same movie. So maybe I should reserve judgment until viewing all 3. But viewing the first one with my wife, we just did not "get it." Jessica Chastain was depressed. OK, we get that. But it was very hard to sit through 2 hours of watching her in that state, believe me. So hard that I really do not care to watch the other 2 versions. Normally I would look forward to any movie with Jessica Chastain. But now, I will really have to think twice.