TIFF Day 5: The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her

TIFF Day 5 was a real testament to my commitment to the fest--exhausted after seeing 6 films the first weekend, I skipped out on law school to see the premiere of Ned Benson's The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her starring Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy. The reason for the "Him and Her" tagged on to the end of the title is because the movie is in 2 parts, from 2 different perspectives: one from his perspective, and the other from hers. Each part (his and hers) is 90 minutes, and so the entire film is 3 hours long. I don't mind long movies, but it was clear from the insanely distracting audience that most people couldn't deal with the length.

That is both the wonderful and blood-boiling thing about seeing films at a festival. A lot of your own reaction to the movie depends on what the overall reaction from the rest of the audience is. Sometimes, it is electrifying to view a film with hundreds of strangers who all feel the same as you. Unfortunately, this was not one of those times. I swear I felt like I was in a room full of 1000 7 year old boys with ADHD. So much moving and getting up and checking phones and ringing phones and etc. It was so frustrating and definitely affected my viewing experience. Despite that however, I still really enjoyed the movie and think that it's a really beautiful way to tell the story of 2 people in a relationship.

The story explores the relationship of Eleanor (Chastain) and Connor (McAvoy), a couple in their early 30s who have been together 7 years. The prologue introduces them as a young couple in love (and we see some more of this side of the relationship through flashbacks) but the bulk of the movie takes place six months after a horrible tragedy in their lives: the death of their baby son.

It becomes clear that Connor is trying his hardest to move forward and go through the normal every day motions, but that Eleanor is unable to do that. So she "disappears" and leaves him. Most of the rest of "his" story is Connor trying to find Eleanor-where did she go, and why, and how can he make things better?

"Her" story answers at least some of those questions, but presents the audience with more questions about Eleanor, and her relationship with Connor, and both of their pasts.

Most of the scenes in "him" and "her" do not overlap, but show how each character is dealing with their lives apart from one another and their interactions with other people (friends, family, co-workers, etc). But the few scenes which are common to both parts (him and hers) are the most interesting. Although extremely similar, there are little differences-dialogue, the way they speak to each other, their attitudes etc-reminding us of the fact that despite shared experiences, we all experience things differently, and memory is a creation of our own construction. I really love those parts of the film.

The film has a fantastic supporting cast which includes SNL's Bill Hader as Connor's best friend, Viola Davis as Eleanor's teacher, and Ciarán Hinds as Connor's dad. I still haven't figured out exactly how I feel about the relationship and chemistry between Connor and Eleanor as characters, and James and Jessica as actors. It's not that there isn't chemistry, it might just be that they seem so different from one another both in real life and in the characters they play. But I think that might be part of the point of the movie: what happens when you fall in love with someone who is so different from you and it seems to work for quite some time, but then a tragedy occurs and you both spiral in opposite directions? Can you stay together? Does the love matter? Can you move forward? These are interesting questions I think the movie prompts. It is definitely worth seeing.

On a side note: in the Q and A, Jessica talked about how her and the director have been good friends for 10 years and that he wrote the Eleanor character specifically for her which is pretty interesting. Also, I found Jessica Chastain so distractingly beautiful in the movie (maybe I always do though? but it might also have something to do with the fact that one of the lawyer's I worked with (and who is a total cold fish/alien) looks shockingly similar to her).

For an interesting 2 minute interview from the fest with the director and James and Jessica (and for other interviews from The Hollywood Reporter lounge at TIFF, see here