TOGETHER: 3 ½ STARS. “darkly funny ode to the all-consuming nature of love.”
SYNOPSIS: There’s togetherness, the feeling that couples get when they reach a certain comfort level, and then there’s “Together,” the darkly funny story of a couple whose attachment issues are solved by a situation beyond their control.
CAST: Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman, Mia Morrissey. Directed by Michael Shanks.
REVIEW: The story of lovebirds Tom and Millie (real life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie), “Togetherness” uses icky body horror to investigate themes of love, codependency, attachment and commitment.
When we first meet them, they’re packing up their city life to move to the country. Millie has taken a job to teach at a smaller school where she feels she can really make a difference to her students. Tom, a mostly unemployed musician, whose recently lost his record deal, is reluctant, but goes in support of his girlfriend.
On a hike near their new house, they have an experience that transforms their relationship in unimaginable ways.
“Togetherness” is an unholy mix of rom com and body horror flick; a movie that imagines what could happen when you completely surrender to your other half. There’s co-dependency and then there’s (NO SPOILERS HERE) what happens to Tim and Millie, emotionally and physically.
Much of the success of “Together” comes from its leads. Franco and Brie not only have chemistry, but they find the balance between the humour and the horror. Oddly, given the film’s tone, there’s a sweetness to them, even when the going gets weird and gooey.
Speaking of gooey, the body horror delivers in a way that is disturbing but also acts as an effective, if literal, metaphor for co-dependency. Even as they try and assert their independence, there is a magnetism between them, and later, an actual bond, that spiritually and physically binds them.
Is it extreme? Yup, but it’s also poignant, and a darkly humorous ode to the all-consuming nature of love. If David Cronenberg was to make a love story, it might look something like this.
“Together” navigates a blend of genres—and one very appropriate Spice Girl needle drop—to deliver a movie that is contemplative on the subject of what it means to be a couple but is also as horrific as it is hilarious.
