Similar in corrosive tone to Blue Valentine, the film chronicles the crumbling of the marriage between New York couple Eleanor Rigby (Jessica Chastain) and Connor (James McAvoy), when once it had been gloriously happy. When we first meet them it's at one of those high points, the two showing their playful side during a mischievous dinner date. "There's only one heart in this chest. Please be gentle with me.", he says to her early one. Nothing remotely gentle awaits him or the audience, however. The very next scene is a dazed and distraught Eleanor attempting to end her life on the Brooklyn Bridge. How such a loving couple could reach such a horrible low is a mystery that Benson keeps at arm's length and tucked inside solemn conversations. There's been a tragedy; one that left her depressed and him unable to cope with the hopelessness. When two people grieve differently it can drive a wedge between them worse than the tragedy itself.
Recovering after the suicide attempt, Eleanor shacks up with her family, leaving Connor without a clue as to what happened. Her father (William Hurt) is a college professor and psychologist, always speaking in well-meaning if clunky platitudes like "Tragedy is a foreign country. We don't know how to speak to the natives." Yeah, okay. Her mother (the great Isabelle Huppert) always has a glass of wine at the ready, and Eleanor's sister (Jess Weixler) needs a date. Poor Connor is left to manage his failing restaurant with chef pal Stuart (Bill Hader), while trying not to ask his successful father (Ciaran Hinds) for help. Eleanor and Connor move on without the other but find it hard to redefine themselves as single people. She heads back to school and strikes up a friendship with her abrasive professor (Viola Davis) who, in stark contrast to Eleanor, has abandoned all maternal instincts. Connor is stuck in emotional limbo; wanting to reconnect with Eleanor but finding it impossible to do so. He goes to some pretty extreme lengths to get her attention but it works, for better or worse.
Benson has a lot to say, and in melancholic fashion he explores the different ways people communicate with one another after a personal loss. Eleanor feels she has lost herself and struggles for reinvention, and she's surrounded by a family who are perhaps too eager to help. Connor is basically running in place, but the fact is he and Eleanor are weighed down by the burdens of the past and may always be. It's tough material, and Benson approaches it honestly. He's got a great visual eye, and his version of Brooklyn has a real majesty to it. Less effective is his screenplay which has characters making the kinds of awkward-sounding statements you'd never hear in life but always hear in badly written Hollywood movies. They probably read as very clever on the word processor but are less so in execution.
Fortunately, it helps when you have a cast as great as this one reciting the dialogue. Chastain and McAvoy are the stars here and they are simply incredible as two pained people trying to put on a brave front. McAvoy gives us flashes of the playful guy we've seen him play so often, but there's something darker lurking underneath it all. Chastain is, as always, beyond reproach, but it's fair to say that Eleanor remains a bit formless as a character. She remains a wisp of a figure through to the end; an idea of a character rather than a fully realized one. Despite this being a his and her story, Eleanor really is the focus and not being able to connect with her is an issue that perhaps only the "Her" version of the film can fix, and that should not be the case. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby doesn't quite live up to the talent it's been gifted with, but Benson's bold first effort is worthy of attention.
Rating: 3 out of 5
