The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: One Story, Two Perspectives

Greg Vellante

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby stars Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy as a couple involved in a universal love story, but here’s the twist: Rather than breaking onto the scene with a singular debut feature, first-time Filmmaker Ned Benson conceived Eleanor Rigby as two separate films, and that is exactly what he accomplished. The script was shot as two films, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her. Both movies focus on the same love story between the two leads but from separate perspectives.

When the two films premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival to mass acclaim, Benson re-edited them as the singular feature The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. And, surprisingly, while The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is being released on September 12 for what will certainly be a major awards push, Him and Her will arrive in select art-house theaters a few weeks later.

Most films can tell a story in 90 to 120 minutes and leave it at that. Viewers can certainly re-watch a film and discover new things, but The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby now offers moviegoers a new way to study a story and its characters. With a strong focus on perspective and the drive to tell the same story three different ways, creating three different films is a daunting task to be admired in its successful completion.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby opens in theaters on September 12.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her will open in select art-house theaters on October 10.