Allan Watched "Together Together"
Bittersweet, witty, and beautiful, Together Together stretches a thought experiment into a delicate 90-minute film that will make you happy you went along for the powerful ride.
Gut Feeling
Together Together, when over simplified, is a thought experiment: What would a friendship look like between a man in his 40s and the loner surrogate of his long awaited child, and what would the benchmarks of a “traditional” pregnancy look like through this lens. The outcome is a gorgeous examination of how two people overcome expectations set by society, family, and friends, fit into the structure of the three trimesters of the pregnancy.
Anna, played stunningly by Patti Harrison (Shrill, A Simple Favor), is a 20-something who is chosen to be Matt’s (Ed Helms) surrogate. The journey of their friendship fits neatly in 90 minutes, and takes the structure of a traditional love story. The first act (trimester) they meet, the second they fall deeper but by the end there is a splintering, and in the third they reconcile. But much like how Anna and Matt are trying to power through the expectations that burden them, the film overcomes the traditional structure by smartly navigating all of the moments when we expect something to happen, and instead land at a different, more fitting destination.
A Story About Anna
This film is really about Anna, and Patti Harrison is the driving force of this film. Her ability to bounce from strong, to vulnerable, to sweet, to cruel is what brings the punch to this collection of many short scenes. Ed Helms does a great Ed Helms, and as in most of his best pieces, he is elevated by his strong counterpart. His ability to portray earnest caring is what makes you not completely hate his naivety, self-centeredness, and sense of entitlement, and the precisely executed script lets Anna pull Matt through each moment with grace, and makes you happy their fortunes collided.
The Little Things
There are so many small throw away lines and funny moments that I wrote down that made me in awe of Nickole Beckwith’s writing and directing. Her use of well-casted minor characters keeps scenes that could have felt redundant feel fresh. For starters, it will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen a moment of Sufe Bradshaw performances that she steals multiple scenes. He wry approach to Jean the technician accounts for some of the bigger laughs, and my favorite line of the film (see below).
The other small roles add depth to each moment, including the great Tig Nataro playing Matt’s stereotypical therapist. It maybe doesn’t boast any classic Tig zingers, but she is a steady sounding board in the scenes where we get to see Matt and Anna develop.
The smallest thing that has the biggest impact is the simple, steady capturing of the final moments of the film, which brought tears to my eyes, and when it cut to black, I smiled because they finished the film exactly how it should have been finished.
Random Thoughts
Once again, more white guys named Matt.
The music plays an enhancing role throughout, and is at its best when the piano is underlying different scenes. The opening “interview” scene may be the best example, when the piano acts as punctuation.
When really over dissecting, the only negatives of the experience are the moments when they are “telling” us things, especially since there is so much success in how they show us changes to our main characters throughout the film.
I battle with if Ed Helms takes away from the film or not. He is a great foil to Patti Harrison, but could the role have had more? It is just Ed Helms being Ed Helms, for better or for worse.
Friends is both an amazing show and “f-ing dumb.” It CAN be both.
I could listen to Tig Notaro read a long list of literally anything and be entertained, including activities you shouldn’t do while pregnant.
Ed Helms saying the word ceramicist is the most Ed Helms thing he could say.
Anna Konkle (Pen15) is super funny as a hipster birth center class instructor. She LOVES child birth.
I will never be able to look at Fred Melamed again without thinking about Dr. Honeydew, dammit.
Julio Torres’s delivery of “Don’t name your kid Jessie", deserves every Oscar, thank you.
Quick Hits:
How many times have I seen this movie?
First time!
Where was I watching it?
Available on Hulu now, I watched it in my office while drinking exactly one (1) Lemon Truly. Delightfully refreshing post-work drink for a movie.
Favorite trivia about the movie
Nothing really on this film, but in my research I went down a rabbit hole of all the movies Bleeker Street has distributed, and they have low-key killed it.
Favorite part
”She’s a technician, what does she know?” “I know everything, I just can’t say it.” God Bless you Sufe Bradshaw.
Least favorite part
There really wasn’t an overly bad or least favorite part. So I’d just say if I go the rest of my life without hearing another one of those “cleansing breaths” I’d be just fine.
Would I recommend this movie?
Absolutely.
So What Does Allan Give It?
One gold thumbs up! In total, a score of 83. Few movies take the monicker of “short and sweet” more appropriately than Together Together. It is an absolute delight.
