the groundhog day project

Ralph has no story arc in the Them version of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby . We only see him once, when Conor brings him to Spencer's house and Spencer says hello. Ralph is, of course, the fish. In Them , he's just luggage with a name, a random bit of trivia. Spencer knows his name and maybe we find that odd, maybe it's just a passing confusions that doesn't seem important. But, Ralph has a life. Ralph has a purpose. And, damn it, Ralph serves a specific sort of role in this film... the Him version of the story. We first see Ralph when Conor goes for "a stroll" ostensibly to go home and check on Eleanor who is still in bed at 6:30pm. Conor feeds the fish before he crawls into bed with Eleanor. Ralph, then, is the first thought. A stand in for the dead child. Eleanor comes second. Ralph is Conor's preoccupation with his dead son. Ralph is responsibility aborted, responsibility perverted. Ralph is something that should be easy to take care of. Elea...

Moving on to Him . The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him in case you're just joining us. So far, I have managed to write three blog entries on the Them version, all three of which were completed at least a half hour before the movie came to its end. This is one of those movies that just grabs me and distracts me from being distracted away from it. Thing is, I've never seen the Him version before. So, the aforementioned problem may be exacerbated tonight. (I also may be inclined to short, relatively self-contained comments as I livetweeted through the Democratic Debate and The Gallows earlier tonight. We'll see.) Same Rom-Com opening as Them --the dine and dash, the park, the fireflies. Since this is Conor's (James McAvoy) version of the story, I'm guessing this will be very different right away, maybe even skip us seeing Eleanor (Jessica Chastain) try to kill herself... Yep, we cut from the titlecard to Conor in his restaurant (sorry, his "bar with un...