The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him & Her
I saw this film at TIFF a couple weeks back and it was quite the experience. Ned Benson, the director, took quite an ambitious approach to this project by filming two perspectives of the same story. When I saw this movie at TIFF, it was a "work-in- progress" and Benson hadn't done a final edit to the film yet. It was also the first time that the cast, Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy, had seen a rough edit of their work as well.
The movie that I saw was rougly 3 1/2 hours. We saw McAvoy's character's perspective first, "Him", than (without intermission) saw Chastain's part. "Her". I think that Benson did a great job juxtaposing the two parts against one another, by playing around with the tone and character settings. Also, the story telling was very different but extremely emotional. As it is in real life, everyone's memory of the same series of events can be quite different and it was great to see it being played out on screen. Do you believe Eleanor's (Chastain) version of the story or Conor's (McAvoy)? In the end, both characters end up on the same path and the audience ultimately assumes what their future could be.
I like the story, but as I've said this is quite an ambitious project. I don't know how Benson is going to market or distribute this film. Three and a half hours is very long for a drama, considering it got slow in various parts of the film, I don't know if the general audience would be able to sit through this whole project.The film moved forward with the help of some comic relief from both the amazing BIll Hader and Viola Davis! (I wished that these two had more screen time, at times when it was too slow it would have been good to see them perform). I don't know if Benson is planning on releasing the parts one at a time, because it would diminish his continuative story telling and people could quickly forget the tiny details seen in the first part that made the whole film stand out. Him & Her got acquired by The Weinstein Film, so its run time will definitely have to be cut down for distribution, probably if it wanted to reach a wider audience.
The festival really allowed for great Q&A time, which was a good opportunity for the audience to see a glimpse into the making of the film through Benson, Chastain, and McAvoy. There was also supporting cast from Jess Weixler, and Ciaran Hinds who attended TIFF. The whole cast was lovely and I've never felt more in love with McAvoy, (man that thick Scottish accent gets to you!). All in all, the movie was shoot well and the story was good, great performances from the whole cast and I really saw how passionate Benson was when he talked about this project. I would love to see a final edit and how it will be played out.
Below is a very short synopsis and I apologize for this version, as there is no release date yet and the project is still in progress:
" It's a two part romantic grief that stars Chastain and McAvoy as a married couple stuck in a failing relationship."
