The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby

The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby is three films, but the DVD version I saw was just one, which was enough. Written and directed by Ned Benson, it is, coincidentally, the second film in two days I saw that was about a dead child and featured William Hurt.

Benson took the story and made two films from a different character's point of view. Those characters are the title one (Jessica Chastain), tagged with a Beatles name that refers to one of their saddest figures (why not Penny Lane or Molly Jones?) The other is her husband, James McAvoy, who owns a struggling restaurant.

The DVD version takes both of those films and edits them together, with much of the material cut. This film is just okay, and since it has the death of a baby at its core, is not a lot of fun. To top it off, Chastain, at the beginning of the film, tries to kill herself.

The deaths of children often mean the end of a marriage, and after she is released from the hospital she moves back in with her parents (Hurt and Isabelle Huppert). She takes classes, forming a friendship with a professor (Viola Davis). McAvoy, along with his friend (Bill Hader) tries to make his restaurant a go; he is staying with his father (Ciaran Hinds), who owns a successful restaurant.

Not a lot happens in this film, it's basically a character study of how a marriage tries to hang together. The acting is good but despite the emotional weight I never really got invested in the story. Editing the two stories together also makes for some problems. I read the plot summaries on Wikipedia and notice that an early scene, where McAvoy and Chastain dine and dash, is balanced by a scene in which McAvoy chases someone else doing the same thing from his restaurant. This second scene is not in the composite film, and thus makes the first scene kind of hang there.

Chastain is one of our best actresses, and she gives this film more interest than the script suggests. Lately she's been doing big box office films like the X-Men and It, which I'm sure are high in remuneration but not worth her talents. I would like to see her in something more artful, soon.