Review of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014) by Dan M — 27 Sep 2014

Jessica Chastain is all kinds of extraordinary and at her fierce and best in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. As the title character, Chastain never goes for easy sympathy as a woman who attempts suicide after the loss of her child. James McAvoy is in fine form as Conor, who makes up the other half of a couple that can't put themselves or one another back together.

Speaking of being the other half, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby was once two films, subtitled Him and Her and told from each person's point of view. It's a testament to the skills of both actors and debuting filmmaker Ned Benson that the combined version still holds you in thrall (the separate films will be released in October).

But what we have now is the combined version, and as a result, each character's backstories, Eleanor with her parents (William Hurt and Isabelle Huppert) and Conor with his restaurateur father (Ciaran Hinds), are rather truncated and abbreviated, but the impact remains. I myself would rather spend four hours with Eleanor and Conor than two. It's a thrilling filmmaking experiment and whichever version you see of this emotional powerhouse, Chastain and McAvoy will leave you floored,.