Review: ‘Together' fuses love with horror in all too convincing ways
Germain McMicking/Neon
Phrases describing 'Together' you're likely to read include co-dependent, body horror and black comedy.
All accurate as far as they go. But it makes me want to add, ain't there anyone here for love?
The movie stars real-life married couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco and boy, is it evident. Everything Millie and Tim, the hapless pair they play, do and say feels authentic, spontaneous and heartfelt. Their easy familiarity, insecurities, the needs they can and can't fulfill for one another, anger, passion and, yes, terror play like they could only come from folks who've been in love for a long time.
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And they seem to be in it for the long haul, if it doesn't kill them.
Alison Brie as Mille, left, and Dave Franco as Tim in 'Together.'
Germain McMicking/Neon
The generously shared intimacy on display makes all the scary and repulsive stuff seem like more than just good horror movie elements; they're metaphors for relationship hurdles, emotional ickiness made flesh.
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'Together': Horror. Starring Dave Franco, Alison Brie and Damon Herriman. Directed by Michael Shanks. (R. 142 minutes.) In theaters Wednesday, July 30.
This feature debut from Australian writer/director Michael Shanks basically takes one idea and wrings it dry: How do we become closer without losing ourselves in one another? (The filmmaker spoke up about a copyright infringement lawsuit surrounding the film last month.) It can be too much at times, but isn't everything about true love? And being so single-minded about his theme enables Shanks to examine most of what can go wrong between partners. Well-deployed humor, throughout the film but especially between this man and woman, helps make it bearable. The best joke is that, despite everything, these two are probably made for each other.
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Alison Brie as Mille, left, and Dave Franco as Tim in "Together."
Ben King/Neon
Together for a decade before moving from the city to the country, where Millie's landed a teaching job, she and Tim know each other well. But doubt lingers about absolute commitment. Tim hesitates too long when Millie proposes in front of all their friends at a going-away party. Her favorite song is the Spice Girls' '2 Become 1' yet she's quick to say, 'If we don't split now, it will be much harder later.'
He's a guitarist who's still pursuing a career that's never really taken off. Tim nonetheless feels he's giving up something big for Millie with the move, while she sees herself as the sacrificing one while he's chased his failed dream. They haven't had sex in months.
Alison Brie as Mille in 'Together.'
Ben King/Neon
Still, a reset might be what they need. Their new house in the woods is roomy and beautiful, a strange pack of fused rats in the rafters notwithstanding, and has lovely hiking trails nearby.
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Losing their way one stormy afternoon, Millie and Tim fall into a pit. There are remains of a Plato-worshipping church and something in the water down there. They wait out the rain overnight and wake up more connected than ever before. Painfully so, but it's nothing compared to the physical and mental torments about to drive them unimaginably closer.
Dave Franco as Tim, left and Alison Brie as Mille in 'Together.'
Germain McMicking/Neon
Brie and Franco's interplay persuasively cuts blood-curdling rawness with sensitivity and the civility people cultivate in order to live together. Their physical acting is just as incredible. Millie and Tim go through increasingly agonized contortions as they struggle against an ever more powerful, mutual attraction. It can be hard to tell where the flexible actors end and the special effects — credited to a number of the artisans who worked on 'Furiosa' — seamlessly begin. Let's just hope that was a prosthetic in the overhead toilet stall shot.
It's the actors' emotional intelligence, though, that creates the movie's true onscreen magic. This is like an Ingmar Bergman scenario directed by Sam Raimi. However you slice it, 'Together' is a great love story. The ghastliness of it all is the chef's kiss.
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