Together (2025)
Directed by: Michael Shanks
Premise: Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) are a longtime couple whose relationship is on the rocks. They move to a rural home and encounter a curse that makes their bodies fuse together.
What Works: Together is an example of a fantastical conceit used to visualize and dramatize an abstract concept. Tim and Millie are a couple who have been together for a long time and their relationship has hit a crisis without either of them fully realizing it. Tim and Millie have competing visions for their lives; he’s a musician at home in the city while she’s a grade school teacher looking for a quiet rural life. Together uses a horrific premise to visualize the characters’ codependence. The story has a growing sense of doom. Tim and Millie want out of their relationship but like addicts their codependency keeps them coming back to each other. As Tim and Millie’s bodies absorb into one another they take desperate measures to maintain their separate identities. Although a touch on the nose, it’s an effective metaphor of the way intimate relationships cause us to lose some of our individuality. Together is a work of body horror and the visual effects are impressive. Small and intimate wounds are often more viscerally upsetting than large gore effects but Together features sizable and gooey set pieces that retain their impact. It’s an outlandish premise but the filmmakers make it credible by finding the right scale. Together also works because of the performances by Dave Franco and Alison Brie. They are convincing as a couple struggling with repressed resentments and the dissatisfaction is evident underneath their interactions.
What Doesn’t: Together takes awhile to get going. The film opens in New York City with the couple throwing a farewell bash and then relocating to the country to begin their new life. While the filmmakers take the time to establish the characters and their relationship, they also take too long to get to the central conflict. The filmmakers are preoccupied with the supernatural force causing the couple’s condition. The movie isn’t about that supernatural force; it’s about the couple dealing with this biological assimilation and facing the problems in their relationship. Unlike the extraterrestrial menace of 1982’s The Thing, the supernatural force of Together is much more of an aside and the film’s efforts to explain it distract from the central conflict. The end of Together feels a bit off in its tone. The final reconciliation and resignation comes across forced and contrary to the character’s desires.
Bottom Line: Together mostly succeeds as a mix of body horror and a relationship drama. It’s a little baggy, especially in the first half, but the visual style and the commitment of actors Dave Franco and Alison Brie make this an effective and occasionally wrenching film.
Episode: #1061 (August 17, 2025)