Movie of the Week: The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (Them)

Alexa: A little background for anyone not familiar with “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby” – the project originally screened as two separate movies, “Him” and “Her” versions told from the perspectives of Conor (James McAvoy) and Eleanor (Jessica Chastain) as their marriage falls apart after a tragedy. Director/writer Ned Benson subsequently stitched together scenes from both films into another version, “Them.” I remember being intrigued by the “Him” / “Her” approach when the films were first released, but sadly I only had time to watch one version this week, so I chose “Them” – and I was a bit underwhelmed. The movie is gorgeously shot and features remarkable performances from McAvoy and Chastain. Their haunting work alone is reason enough for anyone who appreciates nuanced acting to watch it. But at least in the “Them” cut, the story felt more familiar than I was expecting based on the buzz surrounding the film when it was on the festival circuit. Other than the acting, not much separates it from countless other indie dramas about the dissolution of relationships and coping with loss. It also suffers from some pacing problems (I thought the movie was much longer than its actual run time). But I wonder if those issues are a product of the story itself or the result of this particular cut. Perhaps if I watched the “Him” and “Her” versions it would feel more original to me, or maybe I just had high expectations after reading so much about the movie when it first hit theaters. It had its moments that piqued my emotional investment, but overall it wasn’t as memorable as it should have been.

Joel: Watching this movie I have to wonder if the Them version of this movie was really ever supposed to exist. As the movie progresses, it becomes clear, rather quickly, that the movie was meant to be viewed as two separate films, the Him and Her versions of the movie. If you know the background of the movie going into it, it’s clear watching Them that this is a movie made up of the other two movies, stitched together. The Them version of the movie didn’t seem to be really on anybody’s mind while making this movie, but cobbled together later in the editing room, using the footage that already existed from Him and Her. And while I understand the thought process behind putting this version out there, it never gets away from the feeling that you’re watching a reader’s digest version of what the filmmaker wants you to really be watching. The movie has some interesting ideas on perspective and personal outlook that disappear when you’re watching the Them version of the movie.

Him has a 96 minute runtime, and Her clocks in at 105 minutes. That means that the Them version of the movie (123 minutes total) is missing close to eighty minutes of footage. Footage that’s supposed to help you connect and empathize with the characters is missing which makes a movie that runs for two hours feel bizarrely rushed, and poorly paced. It’s as if the movie is just hitting the necessary beats of your run of the mill, film festival indie darling drama, and doing little more than going through the motions. I understand not wanting to sit through the same story twice, but watching the Them version of this movie seems like a poor solution.

There’s a DVD of Memento, where one of the special features is the movie restructured to show all the scenes in chronological order. It’s an bizarrely fascinating thing to watch, having already seen Memento, but would unquestionably ruin your viewing of the movie if that was your first experience with the story. I couldn’t help but think of that version of Memento when watching Them. It wasn’t so much a movie of its own, as much as it was an interesting experiment in editing that would be a good DVD feature rather than it’s own standalone movie.

There are still some issues with the plot itself (even in the split Him/Her versions of the movie, it still doesn’t quite escape from some of the more tired indie drama tropes) but if you’re going to watch this movie, Netflix has all three versions of the movie available, so take the time to watch the movie the way it was clearly meant to be watched.

Chris: I always liked these movies but I had only seen the Him/Her versions but now that I've seen the Them version, I'm starting to wish I hadn't put this movie on the list and instead put Him and then Her on consecutive weeks. As Joel and Alexa both said, the Him/Her movies were meant to be watched, Him being first because that version starts with the backstory whereas as Her begins assuming the audience already knows the premise. Him/Her is so unique because most movies are only long enough to cover the main character's views, opinions or take on whatever happens in the movie meaning we never really get other characters' takes on the events within the movie. However, with Him/Her we get both sides to the story and we see that neither is necessarily in the right the entire time. The problem with Them is the fact that it tries to hit the major points of both movies and compress it into 2 hours but a lot gets lost in the process. It's an exercise in editing but Them is ultimately trying a bit too hard to compile all this footage into an easily digestible feature film that feels a tad too sanitized and cookie-cutter compared to the two original films. HBO featured an interesting "experiment" for awhile on their on-demand service with The Godfather series where they re-cut all 3 movies into one 7 hour epic that plays out chronologically (starting with the Vito Corleone flashbacks that were originally featured in Godfather II). That's what I would've preferred in the Them version, re-cut both movies in their entirety chronologically for one massive 4ish hour epic and successfully pull off what they were trying to do with the Them cut.