'Together' Review - Committing to the Bit(s)

Tone is a funny thing. Sometimes a movie has a tone so consistent throughout that any deviation from it will seem like a mistake or bad choice, perhaps not the best take used from an actor’s performance or an off-the-wall editing decision. On the flip side, many films more often than not deftly balance things comedy, drama, action, suspense, and so on to create something more than the sum of its parts. Regardless of genres, it tends to be more the norm now, rather than keep something tonally drowning in either melodrama or a feature length SNL sketch.

It wasn’t until a particular scene(s) that I started to really get the film. Despite its trailers presenting something very eff’d up, the overall picture is something much more humorous, fun, and cringe-enducing (in a good way). That being said, the opening is fantastic, and the first time in many, many years something I’ve seen conjured John Carpenter’s The Thing in my head that wasn’t directly just trying to do the same thing (Hint: it involves dogs).

*Ben Nye Thick Blood* | *Ben Nye Stage Blood* | *Mehron Stage Blood*

From there we start to see an interesting mix of the horror implemented, but not in the ways we’d expect. Mille (Alison Brie) and Tim (Dave Franco) are hosting a going away party at their place in NYC, and the movie wastes no time in making clear that these two probably should have broken up already. It’s not that they don’t care about each other, but it’s clear they’re moving in different directions. Millie has accepted a new teaching position in the countryside, and Tim is of course going with her, albeit tentatively. During the party outside on the balcony, some musician buddies are already cautioning him it’s a potentially big mistake to move away with her, warning they wouldn’t want to die with “someone’s else’s life flashing before my eyes” instead of their own (Wow, some friends, huh?). Tim doesn’t seem to need much convincing, as he agrees to join their band short one guitarist, and decides to tell Millie later.

Meanwhile, inside the party Millie and her friend (the only one she really talks to despite this apartment being packed with people) who questions if Tim was fully on board with the move. It’s classic couple miscommunication revealed through separate convos with friends. These friends unfortunately don’t come into play at all through the rest of the film, apart from a later scene with Millie’s friend and her talking over video chat about Tim’s odd behavior, as she bluntly suggests she’s going to come up there (Spoiler: she doesn’t. And not in a she never made it there because she tragically dies trying to help save her best friend way, but a that’s simply her last scene in the movie way). It might’ve been interesting to see the two main characters more developed by way of their other relationships, since their own is the one that’s struggling. On the other hand, audiences obviously came to see the pairing of these two real life partners, and that’s where the focus should rightly be.

*The Walking Dead Mush Walker Mask* | *Sin of Envy Deluxe Silicone Mask*
*Evil Witch Four Eyes Mask*

The first real gasp of twisting in your chair, hands over your face, or mouth going wide doesn’t come from any body horror moment though. As Tim gives a speech at the party, Millie gets down on one knee and proposes to him, to which he goes quiet and delaying a verbal answer, his silence speaking louder. With each passing second, you can feel how INCREDIBLY awkward this is, and Alison Brie and even the background actors really sell just how unexpected that was, and tends to be. At the same time, it was, thus far, Tim’s first moment of honesty. Our very first introduction to his character his him lying to Millie about looking for a record to play at the party, when instead he’s looking at an old family photo. We later learn of the tragic death of both his parents, and how it’s stilted him into a state of inactivity. Larger in scope than a depression, it’s given him real pause and fear towards building a life forever with Millie, and his hesitation in saying “Yes” to her proposal is, while hilariously awkward, a moment where he didn’t shove it all down.

Indecision itself is a choice, and it comes into play throughout.

Brie and Franco’s chemistry is difficult to describe. Married in real life, their character’s are going through issues, even before all that conjoined, magnetic, sticky horror stuff. So, obviously those rifts should be apparent, and they shouldn’t BE magnetic with each other emotionally. At the same time, it feels difficult to root for them too. What is keeping the audience from going the way of those party friends, who serve little purpose outside the first ten minutes, and thinking these two should just break up? Especially once the curse starts to take hold and they have to keep enough distance between each other or they’ll…die?

*Realistic Bloody Ripped Out Eyeball* | *4″ Small Eyeballs* | *Ripped Eyeball Keychain*

Not terribly much. They have some cute moments but they pass in a flash. Perhaps this is the point in a relationship where communication and cohabiting have become so easy and second nature, it doesn’t look like anything noteworthy. It’s routine and common. We first get a real look at how the two work together and maybe need each other when they get stuck (no, not yet) in a cave in the woods near their new house. A spur of the moment hike turns dangerous when a severe downpour leaves them lost and then falling in an underground cavern. They spend the night there, after drinking from a pool of water that seems “safe”. We know it’s not. On one hand, it’s typically only recommended to drink from running, flowing water than still because it’s less likely to be harmful. On the other, many caves have very clear water by way of not being shored by dirt, mud, debris, and human waste. Either way, movie’s gotta happen.

During the night in the cave, Tim shares with Millie a horrifying memory of witnessing his parent’s death. They also smoke together. Suddenly, briefly, it feels like the two actually see each other. Tim has real emotional trauma and its caused a real distance and lack of intimacy between him and Mille. If Tim’s hesitation at the proposal was an unintentional moment of honesty, this is his first moment really leading with it.

The rest of it goes the way you’d expect or perhaps saw glimpses of in the trailer. They start to become inexplicably closer, physically, without any control over it. Tim is mainly the one drawn to her more at first. Maybe it’s because he drank more water, maybe it’s because he’s a man, it’s not really clear. Although, some eagle-eyed viewers noted Millie’s body doesn’t start to react until a visit to her boss Jamie’s (Damon Herriman) house where he gives her a glass of water. Jamie is revealed to be a cult leader that ties into all this spooky conjoining mess, which frankly the religious cult trope is getting a little tired lately, but “if it ain’t broke…”. Once Millie’s body also starts to become attracted to Tim as well, it creates some uncomfortable, if not hilarious, scenes. Some great moments of body horror follow, and one chaotic scene of snorting muscle relaxers that feels right out of a previous Franco flick 21 Jump Street if it was a nightmare, and what follows is one of my favorite parts of of the movie.

*Realistic Severed Male Forearms Pair* | *Griggs Standing Split Body Prop*
*Realistic Bloody Cut Off Female Legs Pair*

Tim wakes up, duct taped to a chair, with Millie sort of straddling him. The muscle relaxers helped stop their bodies from becoming one, but their arms are still stuck together, like two parallel bars. The pills are gonna wear off soon and there’s no time to think. A Chekov’s gun moment à la buzzsaw earlier in the movie comes in handy here, along with some whiskey. The moemen is tense, and Brie really shines here in a sort of crazed daze, determined to take charge and separate themselves, but the moment still has great humor too. The sawing happens, but we don’t really see any gore, as the scene jump cuts to a wide, with Millie and Tim on opposite sides of the kitchen, the island counter in between them, as they eat some snacks in silence.

This moment in particular, them just taking a moment to breath, eat, relax, and legitimately be together, despite the warranted and no doubt welcome distance between them in the kitchen, feels like it’s showing us how they can work as a couple. In the face of “What the f***” scenarios, they both did alright, and it took the two of them to do it.

*Broken Bone Compound Fracture Rubber Latex Prosthetic*
*Wound FX Water Transfer Prosthetic* | *Large Slice Laceration Wound Rubber Latex Prosthetic*

The horror part of this film is really the other half. Not just the other makeup of the movie, as this is very much a horror comedy, and it often feels more comedy than horror at points. But your other half, or your “boy partner”, as Millie puts it so millennially. The body horror stuff is great but is seen in spades, and is mostly reliant on VFX, apart from some handy practical work in a few shots, and one big grotesque part near the climax back in the cave. But these moments are spread out, steering away from gore elements, and focusing its real terror on the codependency of Tim and Millie. They really shouldn’t be together. The whole movie has been telling us this to the point we’re rooting for them not to be, in part because the scary Jesus water is making them horrifically become attached at the hip, limbs, and other unmentionables.

The indecision is what brought them both to this. Tims parent’s tragic death, Millie’s uprooting their life, all their friends seemingly doubtful the two will make this move work; they should have left each other a long time ago. But with that many years together, it would seem like a waste to just throw it all away, right? It’s a big world, and it can get real lonely. What if this is the only person you’d ever get to make it work with? What if this is just how love is 10+ years into a relationship. Maybe ordinary is ok?

*Grindhouse Bloody Hacksaw Earrings* | *Blinding Beauty Eyeball Earrings*
*Final Cut Bloody Handsaw Earrings*

At its core, Together is an allegory for the loss of self. The tragedy of going far beyond love and devotion to your partner where you cease to exist. In the final moments of the film, fully aware of what’s happening to them and why, they both try to end this curse the only possible way. Before Tim can sacrifice himself, a mortal wound Millie suffered from Jamie (after doing his whole “You’ve discovered I’m the villain so here’s my evil plan” bit) takes the choice away from him; again, another moment where he cannot make a decision. This time though, he does, allowing the fusing to occur in order to save her from bleeding out. The big body horror moment is saved for last as they succumb to the desire the holy water they drank has instilled in them, and they become a single, androgynous body.

The reveal is sorta played for laughs, as Millie’s parents arrive to greet them the next day. But in those final moments of conjoining and fusing, the intoxication of their love fades away. Millie’s favorite song “2 Become 1” by the Spice Girls, put on by Tim in this final moment, is overtaken by harsh, ambient music, as they both begin to moan and groan from the unimaginable Lovecraftian horror of losing oneself completely. Too far gone to stop it now, perhaps with a twinge of regret or second thought, but unable to express it, with lips, eyes, and innards melding like the clasp of hands on a first date, wedding, and deathbed.