Alison Brie, left, and Dave Franco in “Together.” Credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute via TNS
People spend lifetimes searching for their soulmate, their better half — someone who “completes” them.
Finding your life partner is one thing, but keeping them in your life is another. What do you do when you’ve found the one and you just can’t let them go?
“Together” answers this question brilliantly. Following the long-term relationship of Tim and Millie — played by real-life married couple, Dave Franco and Alison Brie — writer-director Michael Shanks’ debut feature-length film tackles the concept of codependency and relationships through skin-crawling body horror.
With a perfect combination of tense, uncomfortable moments and comedic couple bickering, the 1-hour, 42-minute film keeps you on the edge of your seat — unsure whether the next scene will make you jump in fear or erupt in laughter.
Our story begins with a search party; a couple has gone missing after going for a hike in the woods. A hole in the ground leads two dogs to a cave, scattered with church pews and marked bells. Undeniably thirsty, the two drink water from the cave and return to their owner. Later that night, a gruesome sound is heard from the cage the dogs reside in.
The film then cuts to Tim and Millie. After dating for 10 years with no plans of marriage or children anytime soon, their relationship is at a crossroads: break up or fix it. It’s evident they love each other, but Tim’s mind is elsewhere, still grieving the traumatic death of his parents.
The film truly begins to unfold after Tim and Millie take the plunge to move to a remote home in the woods, hours away from friends and family — well, Millie’s family.
The move comes after Millie accepts a teaching position. Tim, on the other hand, is chasing his dreams of being a musician, despite being in his mid-30s and still struggling to get his foot in the door. The stagnation of Tim’s personal and professional growth contributes heavily to the dissonance in their relationship — he’s unwilling to accept his unhappiness or move on from the unrealistic dreams he’s been pursuing.
Their new home is in an eerily suffocating setting, isolated from everyone except their one neighbor, Jamie (Damon Herriman), who just so happens to work with Millie as a teacher.
“Together” is a hauntingly accurate portrayal of codependency. The couple are stuck, “trapped” as Tim says, yet neither of them will admit it nor split up. Instead, they reminisce on the beginning of their relationship and how things were back then, as opposed to how they are now.
It’s not until the two go for a hike and stumble upon that cave, finding themselves surrounded by the same bells and drinking the same water as the dogs, when we begin to understand what’s happening.
The two wake up stuck together; they’re easily separated in this instance, but not without some pain. When Tim begins having brutal nightmares and blacking out when separated from his partner, we’re propelled into the deeper meaning of the film.
He is trapped; Millie remarks early on in the film that he needs her more than she needs him, and that couldn’t be any more true. He can’t be away from her — some force keeps dragging him back, no matter how hard he tries to embark on his own career pursuits.
It’s this painfully true depiction of what it feels like to need somebody; he’s desperate to make it as a musician but is unable to follow through with his desires. Not without Millie.
We’re slapped in the face with Millie’s insistence that “if we don’t split up now, it’s only going to be harder later.” Showing up quite early in the film, the comment not only foreshadows the scenes to come, but places a sense of urgency on their relationship and the path it’s headed down.
Millie loves him. She sees that he isn’t the same man she fell in love with, yet she stays. The closer the two get, the more physically stuck they get. This is especially evident when the two make love for the first time in months; their bodies desperately clinging on to each other after a sprinkle of intimacy in their drought.
For a movie that was so intense throughout, the ending was underwhelming. Although it’s a horror-comedy film, it was disheartening to see an absurdist ending when it could have maintained the tension that made the film such an enjoyable, enthralling watch.
While there is a decent amount of blood and gore, it’s not nearly to the level of other hit body-horror films, rather focusing on the uncomfortable fusion of two bodies. The crackling noises as the two begin to intertwine is enough to make even the most-seasoned horror fanatic cringe. The typical jumpscare-esque scenes were well-done, despite being mostly predictable.
For couples on their first date or body-horror fans who hate excessive gore, “Together” is the cautionary tale to see.
Rating: 5/5
