What you don’t find out just by watching The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is that it was originally made as three separate films that were only later truncated into one shorter feature. Writer-director Ned Benson said this was in effort to keep audience attention rather than have them sit for hours of film. In spite of this consideration, I find myself hard-pressed to believe that an extension of the blended, perplexing outlooks that drive this narrative will lose your attention.
The three separate films revolve around the same time period and the story keeps its focus on a young married couple. Thus, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is the collective title and truncated version of three separate films: Him, Her and Them.
Him and Her were screened in 2013, while Them was first screened in 2014. Interestingly, the film not only follows two perspectives (that of the husband and that of the wife), but it stitches together what were originally two completely different scripts. The overlap of the scripts, remarkably, maintains the emotional trajectory of both individuals’ points of view offered in the separate pictures. It seems as though the vision for the completed picture started out as merely scattered, vague ideas of what eventually become a full, refined story about loss coupled with heartbreak.
Eleanor Rigby (Jessica Chastain) and Connor Ludlow (James McAvoy) are both living in New York and coping with their mutual loss in quite different ways, while simultaneously struggling with identity issues. Hence, the title The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is more so a metaphorical one. The disappearance alludes to one’s identity, but not to one in the physical sense. Both Eleanor and Connor wind up back in their parents’ homes after finding themselves unable to work through their grieving together. While Connor continues to work in his struggling restaurant with the company of his coworkers and friends, Eleanor winds up going back to college in an attempt to find herself.
It isn’t only two viewpoints that are offered, but two differing approaches in terms of coping with loss. One moment two individuals are completely in rhythm with one another and the next, they are moving forward in opposing directions. Although living apart at the time, the two reconnect and attempt to talk through their problems, but it seems as if the loss was too great to overcome individually, let alone together. Each attempt to hold dialogue results in failure.
The flashbacks of the couple’s interactions prior to the incident reveal two people who were at one point very much in love, inseparable even. Connor’s (McAvoy) father advises late into the film: “You shouldn’t be interested in regretting things.” The message stakes itself in the back of the viewer’s mind as the film proceeds. What event exactly ruptured the marriage isn’t clear for nearly the entirety of the film. The audience works to guess the mystery and is often supplied with misleading hints suggesting that the incident may have had to do with something along the lines of cheating, when it is something of greater levity. It’s a heartbreaker.
Much of the film takes place outside, in the more troubling hours of night. The dark setting allows the director to utilize lighting to create an alienated and contemplative mood. On the whole, the picturesque cinematography, in accordance with the romance interrupted by unforeseen loss, highlights the often-overlooked beauty in reveling in sadness.
The Bijou Metro (43 W Broadway) is showing The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. Showtimes can be found on its website.