A great idea with even better execution, Together delivers an excellent bit of body horror.
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It always feels strange to me when real life couples star in a movie together. Acting on camera is hard enough and now you have to get into an ugly spat with your real life partner and go home like everything's fine at the end of it? Like how in the hell did Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton even go home in the same car after filming Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? together? Nevermind bad example, they seemed to thrive on that kind of mutual messiness. And besides the heyday of real life couples starring in movies together has mostly sailed with the majority of performers maybe opting for a cameo in their spouse's movies like Blake Lively donning a Deadpool mask for Deadpool & Wolverine. Or, the far more likely nowadays, folks become a couple during filming and then the press tour has some extra juice. I bring all of this up, because I can't think of a more awkward movie to make with your spouse than a body horror movie all about co-dependency. And that's exactly what Alison Brie and Dave Franco did with Together.
The Setup
The movie follows a couple, Minnie and Tim, during a transition period. The wife Minnie has taken a teaching job in a remote community in the woods and Tim is still reeling from his parent's passing and trying to make it as a musician. But the couple's strained relationship goes from distant to toxically intertwined as a powerful force drives the duo closer and closer together as their relationship seemingly fractures.
I love it when a movie wears its metaphor right on its sleeve. Like, here's our character's. Here's what already going on with them. And now we're going to turn up the heat with an on the nose metaphor for co-dependency.
Where's what stands out.
A Great Take On Co-Dependency
A lot of the most obvious examples of co-dependency are cartoonish and over-the-top. Like a guy walks into the house looking like John McClane, bloodied and beaten, and when his partner asks him if he can go to the store for a non-essential item really quick he says "sure, no problem."
What I love about Together is that it presents both Minnie and Tim as co-dependent but in complimentary/damaging ways.
The move is a great example. This move is clearly something Minnie wanted because she got a job offer that suited both what she wanted for her career and her life. But all of Tim's ambitions and connections are in the city. So now, when he's still clearly reeling from the death of his parents, he's isolated himself even more. Because it's what Minnie wanted.
That doesn't make Minnie an asshole, but it is exactly the kind of decision that could breed resentment and may have been made with what she wanted in mind versus what was best for Tim.
Whereas Tim, is so passive, understandably he's still grieving, that Minnie feels like she can't do something like break up with him because he needs support.
Tim can't stand up for his own needs and Minnie can't walk away. And these rifts only make the eventual supernatural turn sound more implausible because to Minnie it's proof that Tim has been harboring resentment about this whole thing but instead of talking to her about it he's acting out in a weird way. And around and around we go. It also doesn't hurt that these two are playing very much to type.
Brie and Franco Fit These Parts Like A Glove
Dave Franco has gone through most of his movie career playing a young-hot shot types. The new guy on the crew of thieves (or in now three cases magicians) who has charm and physical prowess and might be a bit too cocky for his own good. And I've sensed that there's a really effective sad boy in there. This movie proved me right.
Tim is a familiar type of guy, at least to me, a guy who's generally agreeable, maybe isn't "living up to his potential," but seems to be carrying a heavy emotional load everywhere. Like a candy with a gooey center l that'll spill open if you puncture it. There's a weariness in how Franco carries himself in the movie that works so well and you can tell how exasperated he is by having seemingly simple conversations because he's so preoccupied or just wants someone, anyone, to take him seriously.
On the flip side, Alison Brie is doing something similar, only she's flipping the more...well flippant character's she's played in the past into something with more meat on the bone. The core here is that Minnie kinda resents Tim. Not actively. She defends him. Wants the best for him. All of that.
But she clearly doesn't like where her life is. Why else would she want to move far away from everything and propose to her boyfriend without knowing the answer? And that push and pull between "Noooo, everything is fine," that can turn to venom in a moment is new ground for her and she's really good at it. So we've got the theme and acting down. How about the gross?
Solid Use of the Premise
There's a lot to like in how this movie uses it's big idea. Instead of an identifiable force the movie portrays whatever's going to work on Tim like a gravitational pull that's only getting stronger and stronger. If Minnie leaves the house he feels pulled in her direction. He tries to leave he's compelled back. And pretty soon we're having trouble because different parts of our body are being intertwined in gross ways.
Admittedly I think some of the gore fans are going to be mad about the lack of splattery payoffs for some of the scene setups, but I like how this force keeps changing things up and feels unpredictable. One day it might shuffle you around your shower. The next it might literally throw one of your against the wall so your faces can get stuck together.
Likewise the camera work is less meant to make the audience grimace, but more to put us in Tim and Minnie's experience. So when Tim is getting thrown around somewhere the camera moves the moves and impact. Great work from a relatively new filmmaker in Michael Shanks and props to Brie and Franco for producing the flick.
Likewise the camera work is less meant to make the audience grimace, but more to put us in Tim and Minnie's experience. So when Tim is getting thrown around somewhere the camera moves the moves and impact. Great work from a relatively new filmmaker in Michael Shanks and props to Brie and Franco for producing the flick.
The movie also has some fun with how this interconnection works towards the end which adds complications to all of their solutions to this "our skin is stuck and we can't get it loose" situation.
The Verdict: Straightforward, Gross and Effective
A great idea with even better execution, Together delivers an excellent bit of body horror. 8/10
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