Film review: Ned Benson's Him and Her take different perspectives on a marriage
Only a masochist would enjoy watching The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her in one sitting. An exquisitely shot, impeccably acted romantic drama, writer-director Ned Benson's full-length debut work will make you feel like you've been dragged through the mud for 200 minutes by a broken marriage, which is precisely the subject matter.
Starring: (Him) James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Ciaran Hinds: (Her) Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Isabelle Huppert
Director: Ned Benson
Category: (Him) IIB; (Her) IIA
Only a masochist would enjoy watching The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her in one sitting. An exquisitely shot, impeccably acted romantic drama, writer-director Ned Benson's full-length debut work will make you feel like you've been dragged through the mud for 200 minutes by a broken marriage, which is precisely the subject matter.
Conceived as two stand-alone companion pieces that can be viewed in any order, Him and Her take the perspectives of Conor Ludlow (James McAvoy) and Eleanor Rigby (Jessica Chastain), the once happily-married New York couple whose relationship has turned sour following a traumatic incident that remains oddly unelaborated.
Set primarily in that sorrowful aftermath, the protagonists of these two meandering talk fests spin off into their respective orbits: in his case, a failing restaurant business; in hers, a return to her parents' house in Connecticut.
While it's a shame that McAvoy and Chastain only share a handful of scenes together, there is a touch of indulgence in the way Benson — who happens to be Chastain's ex-beau — lets his story drift aimlessly on the back of a uniformly excellent cast.
Him begins with an electric scene in which Conor and Eleanor, still basking in the bliss of new love, skip out of a restaurant without paying for their dinner and end up falling on the grass in a park and into each other's arms.