The Disappearance of
Eleanor Rigby is a 2013 three-film series written and directed by Ned
Benson, starring James MacAvoy and Jessica Chastain. The films are split into
three perspectives: Him, Her, and Them. The films are about a married couple struggling with grief
over the death of their son and their relationship falling apart. This review
is about Her, which focuses on
Eleanor (Chastain) after she has left her husband to figure out her life on her
own while grieving.
Chastain excels at bringing emotional vulnerability and
rawness to Eleanor, a woman who has undergone a major loss in her life, trying
to remake her life. She attempts suicide by jumping off a bridge, moves back in
with her parents, cuts her hair, enrolls in a college course, and develops a
friendship with her professor, Lilian Friedman (Viola Davis). She remains
distant from her husband, and only really confronts him when he has been
watching her from afar, trying to make a connection with her again.
It is an interesting and complex look at a woman trying to
survive after the loss of her child, and being wracked by depression and anger.
She either lashes out at her parents (William Hurt, Isabelle Huppert) or keeps
herself secluded. It is her own path to recovery, and she must go through it
while learning how to connect with people again.
Some of the most effective scenes in the film are the ones
where Eleanor is building or re-building trusting relationships with close ones.
Eleanor finds a friend in Lilian, who has a non-maternal attitude towards life,
and has accepted loss and handles it with grit and humor. Eleanor re-builds her
relationship with her sister Katy (Jess Weixler), who is a single mom with
anxieties about dating again. And Eleanor and Conor’s relationship, which is
shown in both playfully romantic flashback scenes and in emotionally wrought
present-day scenes after her disappearance.
Chastain is a fantastic actress who highly excels at drama
and playing complicated women, and her star has risen far since her
breakthrough performances in 2011. She continues to shine this year in films
like The Martian and Crimson Peak, and is coming into her
prime in her late thirties. She is really interesting to watch as an actor, and
I like seeing how she continues to excel in a variety of films.
Similarly, James MacAvoy is an acclaimed actor who still
seems to fall below the radar in some ways. Perhaps it is because he looks
boyish in his late thirties, or he maintains a private life with his family and
doesn’t go for celebrity. Still, he is an extremely talented and versatile
actor who is always intriguing to watch onscreen.
These films are an ambitious experiment in presenting two
POVs of a relationship after trauma, and with a great script by Ned Benson, a
talented supporting cast, and solid performances by MacAvoy and Chastain, it is
definitely worth a watch.
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