Very disappointing...

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fresh and Exciting

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

"The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her" appeared to be an engaging movie about a woman whose life is turned upside down after a family tragedy and a spousal separation. What actually appeared in Writer-Director Ned Benson's film was a wishy-washy take on a confused woman who seeks family shelter after personal problems. The originality of this movie disappeared throughout its showing time; oh wait, on second thought, there was no appearance to begin with. I found the movie dreadfully boring. However, there is something here that salvaged this movie; and that comes in the form of the steady Jessica Chastain with her marvel performance as the title character. Chastain is one of, if not the best, actress working today. She always disappears into her character, and that is proved once again with her work here as Eleanor Rigby. However, I do not have the same sentiments for the supporting performances of this movie; which included (believe it or not) Viola Davis, James McAvoy, and William Hurt. Back to Jessie: It is too bad Chastain had to wrestle with the film's mundane storyline & screenplay. Benson actually filmed three versions of "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby";one from the "her" perspective (meaning Eleanor), one from the "him" perspective (being Rigby's estranged husband Conor), and one from the "them" perspective (which I guess is the rest of the Rigby party). I experienced the "her" one. But something tells me that him or them is not much better than her; which pretty much sums up human gender interaction; whatever that means. Time for me to disappear. Goodbye! *** Average

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.

For me, I think the two films are two of the most realistic films I have ever seen. Chastain & McAvoy are brilliant and I'm glad we got to see both sides of the story. But I did tend to like "him" a little bit better. I will say that I think "Her" is better acted. When you have greats like Viola Davis and William Hurt as supporting actors that are essential to moving the story forward, you know you have something good on your hands. This side of the story is darker and more depressing as it more closely deals with unimaginable situation of losing someone very close to you.The most powerful thing that was said in either film was the idea that "You can change a person just by living". It's definitely true, there are people close to me that directly impact my life whether I see them or not. Just by living, they are changing my life. It's something I don't really think about, but I will now. Also the idea of memory is brought up a lot. Chastain's character, Eleanor, talks about the concept of only remembering things once or twice in your entire life, and then it's gone. It's pretty morbid if you ask me. After seeing this one second, I always thought about perception, and how the way events unfold and if I see things differently than people close to me. Even in the slightest bit, I think it's pretty evident we do.Overall, the films are worth watching if you like darker and more realistic types of love stories. I just don't think I ever want to watch these films again. They are just too depressing. But without question they are brilliantly acted and superbly shot. I'm glad I checked them out.+Chastain's range +Tackling different and difficult concepts +Beautiful to look at -Very dark 7.4/10

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