Dois Lados do Amor

"All I want is a chance to just talk it out. After that you can disappear to wherever it is you disappear to."

To be honest I had no idea what this film was about before going into it. All I knew is that it starred Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy, two of the most talented actors I've seen in the past few years. The title had me fooled because I was expecting this sort of suspenseful thriller similar to Gone Girl. During the first scenes I was lamenting that Chastain would probably only be in a few scenes since she would eventually disappear, but what a fool I was. This was actually a romantic drama (or should I say anti-romantic drama?) with two strong lead performances centering on a couple who have experimented a tragedy in their lives and aren't capable of coping with it together. They've become distant and love seems to be only a far away memory. In a sense it has a similar style as Blue Valentine where you get flashbacks of the couple when they were in love contrasting with their present situation. While watching this film I had no idea that director Ned Benson had actually made two movies about The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby from the view point of each of the characters (His and Hers). The version I was watching was a compilation of both those films, summarized in two hours going back and forth from both their view points. It was no wonder I felt like something was missing in this story. If you were to watch both original versions of Benson's film the running time would be over three hours long, but in Them the film is cut into a two hour film. I never felt like I got a sense of who these characters were in this version and I wonder how much it had to do with the fact that so much was cut out of the film. After experiencing Benson's two hour joint film I have no intentions of watching the separate films because I was incredibly disappointed with how vague and void this character study felt. By the end of the film I couldn't relate to either character and felt like they did around their parents when they had no clue what they were talking about (they both use this same line towards their parents in at least a couple of occasions).

Despite the slow pace of the film (the two hours actually felt like three) I was still hooked with the story expecting it to head somewhere. Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy are such great actors that they held my interest in the film and they were a pleasure to watch. The story unfolds in such a way that you don't get much of a sense as to what is happening. As we get some flashbacks we begin to understand what triggered the couple to grow apart from one another, but some things are missing. There are also very strange relationships that Chastain's character has with her parents (Isabelle Huppert and William Hurt). She also shares a few scenes with a Professor she begins to take classes with played by Viola Davis, but those scenes also felt disconnected from the entire film. The same thing happened with McCoy's character and the odd relationship he has with his father (Ciaran Hinds). He owns a restaurant/bar and works with his close friend played by Bill Hader with whom he also shares some strange and misplaced scenes together. Perhaps it was the way that both films were joined together, but I felt like something important was left out and I wasn't able to engage with the characters despite enjoying the performances. Chastain is fantastic and continues to get better over time. She has had stellar roles this year in Interstellar, A Most Violent Year, and now this. Perhaps her breakout role came in 2011 with Take Shelter and The Tree of Life, but she had already collaborated with Ned Benson a year before for one of his short films, The Westerners. If you are a fan of Chastain's work I'd recommend this film, but otherwise I'd suggest you to watch the two separate films because Them felt incoherent and incomplete at times.

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.

Ned Benson both wrote and directed this little quiet film – an amalgamation of two separate films 'The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby Her' and 'The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby Him'. Each premiered in 2013 as two films at the Toronto Film Festival. After the premiere, although it received rave reviews, Ned Benson started cutting the movie again, as a one feature. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. All three movies received a theatrical release.

The story is elusive, dealing with internal issues as to why a happy marriage dissolves. Perhaps (and this is not said outright) the marriage crumbled with the death of their little boy (no details of when or how are given, just obtuse references), but what ever the reason, the summary sates a woman and man seemingly so in love finds their marriage is shaken to the core when life throws them a devastating curve. Now this New York couple must try to understand each other as they cope with loss and attempt to reclaim the life and love they once had.

The cast is loaded with stars – Eleanor Rigby is beautifully off center as played by Jessica Chastain and she is matched by her husband Conor played by James McAvoy. But the supporting cast (all in very small roles) offers Eleanor's parents portrayed by Isabelle Huppert (who has some of the best lines - 'I didn't know I could retrieve all the opportunities I threw away then.' - and William Hurt, Conor's father by Ciarán Hinds, Viola Davis as a snarky professor, Ryan Eggold as a would-be paramour for Eleanor, Jess Weixler as Eleanor's sister, and Nina Arianda as Conor's paramour, and more.

The story is fragile and perhaps too much so, as the line of relating the tale runs into alleyways of nothing too frequently. It is as though a very fine editor could have tightened this up and made it stronger. Certainly as far as a cast is concerned it is top drawer: it just drags around far too slowly to stay very interested. The DVD comes with a second disc for the 'Her' and 'Him' version, but after over two hours of 'Them', viewing that may merit watching on another evening. Very mixed feelings.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby was originally intended as a movie to be focused on a man's perspective as his wife disappeared out of his life. When writer-director Ned Benson brought star Jessica Chastain on, she asked him about Eleanor's perspective and he was so enraptured with this question that he wrote an entire version of the movie dedicated to her view point of the marriage. The two films were shot simultaneously, but times and audiences being what they are, the distributor cut a third version of the film so that audiences could experience the whole thing in one go.

As someone who has seen all three versions of the films (his, her and them) I can tell you this is a mistake. The best way to experience the film is by watching some combination of the Him & Her versions (pick your poison, watching either one first has its benefits and drawbacks, although "Him" does start earlier in the timeline than "Her").

The problem with Them is that it reveals that Rigby is actually a very simplistic movie. It's the story of married couple Connor Ludlow (James McAvoy) and Eleanor Rigby (Jessica Chastain) whose marriage has suffered a devastating blow. Rigby tries to kill herself and when she is unsuccessful she leaves her husband and the two begin separate journeys of discovery. The joy in the Him & Her versions is seeing the different ways the two people experience the same event. Rigby and Ludlow both disappear from each other's narratives for long periods of time posing questions about certain events, questions that get answered when you watch whichever of the two movies you choose to watch first. There's also a handful of scenes that are the same in both stories but the tone and information conveyed is different, showing how people can interpret things differently. All the joy of this is wiped out of the Them version in which everything plays chronologically and we don't get multiple versions of the same scenes.

It's an okay movie, but it will leave you wondering what the fuss is all about.

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