As Americans, we can all at least agree that just because something is incredibly obvious and simple doesn’t mean that it can’t also be somehow very confusing. Writer/director Michael Shanks’ body horror/quasi-rom-com Together has a straightforward gimmick that doesn’t exactly pretzel the brain. And yet, the film’s ending makes a mess of both its message and several human bodies.
If you know anything about Together, you know pretty much everything about Together. A couple who maybe shouldn’t still be a couple start literally morphing into one combined person. We meet Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Alison Brie) as they are stuck in a rut. Well, he is rut-bound. Part of his schtick is excusable: He walked in to find his mother in full-blown psychosis happily carrying on while the corpse of his father lay beside her. Part of his shenanigans is inexcusable: He still wants to be a rock-and-roll star in his mid-30s and treats his remarkably understanding girlfriend like she’s a chore to be completed.
Millie gets a job as a teacher in a small town and asks Tim to come buy a house with her there. Home ownership for a teacher and a would-be guitarist will require more suspension of disbelief than the parts where supernatural water makes people mush into one person. On a hike, the “lovers” stumble into a cathedral swallowed up by a forest, and Tim drinks from standing water there. Because Tim is an insufferable idiot. Shortly thereafter, they start sticking together in ways that require saws to split apart.
Together’s first big mistake is Tim. Tim sucks. Oh, Franco is fine and somehow makes the useless human trash bag nearly likeable. But if you watch this movie and root for Tim, maybe don’t tell your partner. Millie isn’t a saint, but she is a responsible adult who gives her dude far more grace than he’s earned. Every frustration she exhibits isn’t just reasonable, it’s arguably quite understated.
If the point is to want them to break up, which seems like the sane thing to want, Together isn’t tense so much as irritating. Oh, every time you two are in the same room, your bodies magnetically move towards each other and superglue into one Voltron made of flesh? Maybe just never see each other again? But the theme hinted at here seems to be that every romantic relationship turns us into some new composite being, and embracing that is terrifying but maybe okay. Nobody should want to be a part of Tim. Tim, as it has been clearly stated above, sucks.
Setting all that aside, Together’s second big mistake is not having enough fun. It’s actually pretty great that the characters spend very little time questioning the reality of their situation. This is happening, and it is bad, they quickly realize. To take a good chunk of screentime to half-heartedly explain the logistical origins of the weird horror is a waste. It is wildly unsatisfying in that it isn’t fully explained. Say nothing or say everything.
The need to provide an explanation also chips away at the comic elements that could well have flung this from a field of mediocrity onto the rolling hills of awesome. What The Substance did so spectacularly with body horror was position it at the intersection of hilarity and grotesquerie. Together lightly points at both and commits to neither, nearly encouraging laughter and revulsion but never truly selling out to deliver either.
This is one of those reviews that sounds far more negative than intended. Together is well-acted, original, entertaining, and nearly weird enough. It just couldn’t quite commit, which seems ironic, if the point of the film is what it appears to be.
Grade = C+
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Amy Nicholson at the LA Times says “Michael Shanks’ Together is the only romance you’ll see this year that’s infatuated by John Carpenter and Plato.”
Rendy Jones at Rendy Reviews says “The horror feats are greatly elevated by the stylish shot composition and strong editing choices (I’m a sucker for great match cuts), which exemplify Tim and Millie’s unrelenting thirst for each other.”
Edgar Ortega at Loud and Clear Reviews says “It’s got the laughs, scares, and themes that are bound to spark meaningful conversations in terms of love being enough to push through tough times, or if letting go is a less painful option when everything is indicating you’re doing more harm than good by staying together.”