Together review
A couple that can’t live without each other. Literally.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Together
Directed by Michael Shanks
Written by Michael Shanks
Starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco
Together Review
One of the big selling points of Eyes Wide Shut, aside from being the last picture from legendary director Stanley Kubrick, was the casting of then real life married couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Many spouses have starred in movies together. John Krasinski and Emily Blunt did so in the recent horror classic A Quiet Place. David Arquette and Courtney Cox had their entire relationship, marriage and divorce chronicled withing the Scream franchise. Together is Alison Brie and Dave Franco’s turn at bat.
This isn’t the first time the couple has worked together. Aside from performing in a few things together, Brie has starred in both of feature films directed by her husband…including the 2020 horror film The Rental. The horror genre, literally, unites them once again in Together. The feature film debut from writer/director Michael Shanks received a lot of buzz coming out of the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Now that NEON has brought it to theaters everywhere…we can officially say that it marks in impressive debut for Shanks…and stands as one of the most original horror films of the year.
The story is a simple one…most great horror movies are. Millie (Brie) and Tim (Franco) have been in a relationship for so long that they can’t remember what life was like without each other. That doesn’t mean that all is well, of course. Millie gets a job hours from their life in the city and Tim has reservations about it. He’s a struggling musician whose commitment in the face of failure has become less endearing to Millie over time. They’re seemingly stuck in a place where they can’t live without each other…but aren’t as close as they used to be.
Until they go for a hike in the woods behind their new rural home, that is. The couple falls into a pit and have to wait out the storm in what appears to be a sunken church. When they wake up the following morning, they find their legs stuck together. They painfully separate themselves and chalk it up to mildew…or something. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t mildew. Tim begins to feel very ill…especially when Millie isn’t close by. He discovers that a local couple went missing right before they moved to town…and searches for a connection. Whenever Millie and Tim physically interact…they run the risk of becoming stuck together…or worse. As time passes…they become incapable of keeping any distance between them. Supernatural forces will literally push them towards each other in unnatural ways…and time seems to be running out to find a solution.
Together has answers for what is happening to Tim and Millie. There are a couple unexpected lore dumps that allow the story to exist in a place that makes narrative sense. It isn’t totally necessary…but it doesn’t feel out of place either. I think most people can accept “fell in a hole…weird stuff happened” as a plot…but Together takes it farther if you need it. What drives the story more than anything is how refreshingly original it is. Shanks creates something totally new and different than what we’ve seen before. It’s a body horror movie combined with a relationship drama. A supernatural story mixed with an allegory about codependency. And it’s all wrapped in a unique, original concept that makes it one of the freshest thing on the market.
Casting Brie and Franco pays fully pays off as well. They been great in a variety of projects before…but they’re giving career best performances here. Having been together for a long time in real life allows them to fully inhabit the ups and downs that Millie and Tim face on a day to day basis. Nothing rings false in their performances from the quiet moments to the giant fears made real by whatever is pushing them to be together. Franco’s character has the showier part…he’s overwhelmed by what’s happening to him. Watching him slowly unravel is one of the best parts of Together. Brie gets to hold Millie together a lot longer. She’s terrific as the unsatisfied, but kind about it, go-getter of the duo. Her more active life keeps her from noticing their predicament as quickly as Tim…but she gets to cut loose before too long.
Together doesn’t quite, pardon the pun, stick the landing with its very final moments. The climax is strong…and, in my opinion, should have ended without its choice for a final image. I get why it doesn’t. The final choice of the story pays off the metaphor that it has been building to the entire time. A necessary coda…but one that stands out as tonally different from what came before it. A minute of screentime isn’t a dealbreaker by any means…but I felt the need to point it out since the final image can be the one that stays with you after the credits roll.
Scare Value
Together is a refreshingly original horror movie. Alison Brie and Dave Franco turn in career best performances…fully committing to the strange story they find their characters dealing with. There’s some fun body horror on display…and an explanation for it all should you require one. Not every choice in Together feels overly necessary…but the central plot is so strong that any extra ideas feel like footnotes more than additional chapters.
4/5
Together Link
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