Relationships are hard. This is a common idea that our parents and loved ones have told us throughout our lives. Discussions on how and when to compromise, finances, and trust are often some of the struggles that come along with this sentiment. What people won’t say is that they are not necessarily hard in the way we are constantly told. If you truly love someone and your bond with them adds to your own sense of being, communication and friendship will go a long way. Where relationships are actually difficult is in how to balance this two way connection with someone while also maintaining your own identity.
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For Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Alison Brie), they have lost the spark for one another that they once had. Millie works as a teacher, bringing in most of their income, while Tim is still hanging onto his dream of being a popular musician. One day when they decide to go on a hike to share in a pleasant experience together, they fall into a hidden cave under a forest sinkhole. What appears to be their worst obstacle quickly turns their lives into a disaster that they can only solve if they can figure it out together.
Together is an incredibly bold horror film that understands how to fuse genuine terror with the fears we have as couples in a relationship. Body horror is brought to a new level, utilizing special effects that are not only skin crawling but fitting in how it aids the script. It grabs a number of subgenre visuals and conventions to give its audience images that they won’t be able to unsee for some time. It features a third act that is reminiscent of horror twists we often see coming but never stands on the legs of its reveal. In fact, the buildup and unfolding story at hand is what is most memorable about Together.
Michael Shanks’ ability to display the imperfection in relationships and how there is a fine line between wanting them and desperately needing them. He opens up the conversation about how the length and dedication put into one another as a couple often makes it more difficult to separate when the relationship has run its course. Being with someone can be a death sentence if the connection is not taken care of and nurtured.
It also touches on how being totally bonded with another individual as one is just as fatal as being codependent. Where codependency both result in two people being joined at the hip, they both pose serious risks, falling on either extreme on the relationship spectrum. A balance of clearly seeing two people as their own individuals working together towards a common goal is what Together is implying, even if its characters don’t quite see it.
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Alison Brie and Dave Franco’s chemistry is undeniably real not only because of their true to life relationship but in their ability to feed off of the other’s emotions and facial expressions the way real couples do. Just because a couple is married doesn’t mean they are shoe-ins to play a couple in a film. Brie and Franco show their love for one another while also being able to mirror the real types of arguments couples have and how it can greatly break down the relationship’s larger mold. Being given a script that allows actors to reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses proves Shanks’s talent in screenwriting in writing a truly human horror. Together is a knockout that is even more rewarding to experience blind but will warrant many rewatches regardless.
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