The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby - Them

Parental Rating: R

Contains: Language    Sex    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens September 19, 2014

Runs 122 minutes

Just for background, this movie started out as two movies called "Him" and "Her", each told from the perspective of the main characters, Conor (James McAvoy) and Eleanor "El" (Jessica Chastain). After much acclaim at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival, the director, Ned Benson edited the two movies into one movie "Them" that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Only the "Them" version has been released in Dallas to date. Throughout the whole movie, it seems that there are pieces missing from the puzzle and it will be interesting to see the individual movies if they are released in Dallas later this year.

Conor and Eleanor meet, fall madly in love and get married. Then something tragic happens and both characters struggle to move on with their lives. Conor is left wondering how things ended up this way and what he can possibly do to set everything right. Eleanor just wants to be anywhere else doing anything else that will take her mind off of the past. She moves back in with her parents (William Hurt and Isabelle Huppert) and cuts off contact with Conor. He moves back in with his Father (Ciarán Hinds) and tries to keep his restaurant afloat while obviously grieving. Neither is happy. She tries going back to school. He tries talking to his friends and his father. He stalks El, trying to understand why she seems to be running away from everything. Eventually, the story comes out in bits and pieces and we learn how they ended up separated. Will they be able to pick up the pieces and put their relationship back together?

This is an interesting movie. As I said, throughout the movie there seemd to be pieces missing. It was probably hard to edit 4 hours down into a combined movie of a little over 2 hours. I'm sure a few important facts were left on the cutting room floor. Overall, I liked it and I wanted to know what caused this couple their grief. We saw parts of their happier times in flashback, but not a whole lot. I would have liked to have seen a little more of the happier times.  I was rooting for them to work everything out.  I guess I will have to see "Him" and "Her" to see if everyting becomes a little clearer or not. Overall, I liked it and I thought the acting was great and the supporting characters were all great, given their little screen time. I would recommend this to lovers of more independent cinema.

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