Together Review: Dave Franco and Alison Brie’s Lived-in Chemistry Has a Grossly Macabre Fun Time in Michael Shanks’ Codependency Body Horror
Writer-director Michael Shanks takes the codependent relationship figuratively and, above all, literally in Together. That literal part? It comes in the form of the body horror tropes — all sticky, gross and wildly over-the-top to the point of making you uncomfortable. And Shanks doesn’t waste time going straight for the jugular with a creepy prologue of how the two dogs end up like a scene straight out of John Carpenter’s The Thing, after lapping up water from a pool beneath the cavernous pit deep inside the woods.
The movie then focuses on the young couple, Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Alison Brie), as their friends celebrate their going-away party since they are moving to the rural countryside from the city. It turns out that Millie has a new job teaching kids at school. While her career takes off to a fresh start, Tim remains stuck as a struggling musician. That night and in front of everyone, she proposes to Tim, only to leave him in hesitation, but reluctantly agrees anyway.
They did eventually move to the countryside, even though things don’t exactly improve from Tim’s point of view. He still relies on Millie, and the fact that he can’t drive means she has to drive him to the destination. Meanwhile, Millie’s teaching job has been going well, and she’s getting along with her co-worker, Jamie (Damon Herriman). Then, one day, Tim and Millie decide to take a hike near their new house and into the woods. But their journey ends up with the couple falling into a cave during a rainstorm. While it’s not deep and they could have climbed back out, they chose to spend the night until the storm cleared.
This is where it all begins, as Tim thinks the pool beneath is safe to drink the water. They both did, and nothing happened at first, until after waking up from sleep the following day, they found their legs mysteriously glued at each other. Unfortunately, this won’t be the last time they are facing this kind of situation, as it gets weirder.
At one point during the later part of the movie, Tim can’t stop thinking about her and goes over to Millie’s school, where they kiss and make love in one of the student restrooms’ stalls. Let’s just say their fiery passion turns uncomfortably gooey that it’s hard not to laugh at what’s happening to them. That sense of disgust in the way of a body horror should, coupled with the pitch-black comedy element, fuse well in this scene.
While I admit the movie takes a while to ratchet up the tension but once it’s there, Shanks manages to find creative ways, often mixing macabre and humour to grossly unconventional results. The pool water that Tim and Millie ingested caused their bodies to turn like magnets attracting to each other. When they get closer, they just can’t help themselves, no matter how hard they try not to have their bodies stick together. The movie does a good job using extensive practical effects to fulfil the bizarre physical transformation scenes with an effective mix of prosthetics and makeup.
It also helps that Franco and Brie, who are both a real-life couple, establish an intimate connection in their on-screen chemistry, while their committed performances serve as one of the biggest highlights of this movie. Together culminates in a squirm-inducing third act as Tim and Millie’s fates head to the pure Cronenbergian territory.
Not everything in this movie sticks to the landing, though. Like how the subplot revolving around Tim’s family history is hinted at earlier in the movie, only to fade away as the story progresses. Not to mention the eventual backstory related to the dangerous pool of water underneath the cave, which causes all the sticky body transformations, is executed in a perfunctory manner. But thanks to Franco and Brie’s engaging performances along with Shanks’ mostly genre know-how direction in blending body horror and metaphorical relationship drama, Together remains an interesting genre movie worth checking out.
