Real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie give us the ultimate character study for co-dependency in Together, the latest in a series of recent prestige body-horror films (The Substance, Bring Her Back).
Together is funny in moments, heavy-handed at times, and just a little too silly in others. The movie works for most of its running time, primarily because of the performances of the principles.
Franco plays a struggling musician dealing with depression who moves into the country to live with his girlfriend (Brie), who has taken a teaching job that enables her to buy a house that must cost at least $5 million. Only in the movies, folks.
After a hike gone wrong—during which they slip into some sort of underground chapel and drink some funky water—they become drawn to each other in a magnetic, grotesquely physical sort of way. The more they try to pull apart, the more they get pulled together, both emotionally and physically.
Writer-director Michael Shanks is going for a deep parable on the dangers of codependency, and the movie works well at times—but some late-movie reveals weaken the overall effect, enough to keep Together from being anything more than an inconsistent, somewhat enjoyable horror show.
Franco and Brie are good together; the fact that they’re a real couple undeniably contributes authenticity to the drama. Damon Herriman is good as a teacher at the school who is, perhaps, a little too helpful and understanding.
By the time Together wraps, with a fairly decent punchline, the shortfalls are somewhat redeemed by the all-in contributions of Franco and Brie. They’re the reason the film gets a slim recommendation.
