Respond to these rapid questions in our Together Together quiz and we will tell you which Together Together character you are. Play it now.
“Together Together” is not only clever, but it’s also sneaky clever. You go into it with the expectation of knowing what you’re getting yourself into, and you may find yourself becoming impatient or dismissive as a result, because the film makes choices that appear to be intended to announce which boxes it is about to check off. Then it continues to confound you in a subtle rather than ostentatious manner until you are forced to accept it on its own terms, which can be frustrating. The technique works perfectly for a film about a surrogate mother and her patron, a divorced man 20 years her senior who acts as her surrogate father. In order to fully appreciate each other, the main characters must first stop trying to categorize their relationship and allow it to be whatever it is going to be, all while attempting to avoid obsessing over what will happen once the baby is delivered.
During the opening sequence, the rope-a-dope strategy is implemented. An older man named Matt (Ed Helms) conducts an interview with a younger woman named Anna (Patti Harrison) in what appears to be a speed dating session at first, then a job interview (it’s a little of both, really). The questions are cutesy but intrusive (“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”), and the answers are required. It has that yacht-cutting-through-clear-water sound that is characteristic of hyper-verbal indie-film comedies about well-off suburbanites stumbling through existential crises, and it was composed by Alex Somers. Windsor Light Condensed is the font used in the credits, and it has been used in every Woody Allen film since “Annie Hall.” Because of the age difference between the two leads, as well as their self-aware yet occasionally stumbling comic banter, it appears that “Together Together” is a clumsy attempt to provide us with the pleasures of a mid-period Woody Allen film without having to factor in, um, y’know, Woody Allen.
According to the results of the screening, this is not the type of film in which the main characters overcome social obstacles and go on to live happily ever after as husband and wife. This turns out to be a rare film about two characters who have never before appeared on screen together. At first glance, they appear to be cut from the same cloth as a mediocre romantic comedy. Nikole Beckwith, the writer/director, and her leading actors make a gesture in that direction by having Matt and Anna quickly disclose their shared feelings of loneliness and aloneness (which are two different concepts) and talk about their troubled pasts. Matt is the creator of a masochistic dating app called Loner, which allows users to browse the profiles of other singles. Users are not allowed to save profiles unless they favorite them, and they can only choose one to favorite at any given time. Matt’s marriage ended in divorce for an undisclosed reason (basic incompatibility, it seems). However, he made the decision to have a child regardless, using his own sperm and a donated egg. He’s extremely self-conscious about the fact that he’s a single, straight man in this situation. The fact that Anna became pregnant while in college and then gave the baby up for adoption earned her the wrath of her parents, who saw her as a failure for both having an unplanned pregnancy and not keeping the child with them. “It seemed as if the only way they would be happy was if I was wildly unhappy,” she tells Matt. “It seemed as if the only way they would be happy was if I was wildly unhappy.” What exactly is this, a Charlie Kaufman discount?
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However, the more time you spend with these two, the more difficult it becomes to categorize them into different types of characters, let alone compare the film to other films or predict what will happen to the main couple. In fact, it seems inappropriate to refer to them as “a couple.” They’re more than friends, but they’re not quite lovers. That is, not “less than,” because using that phrase implies that a romantic relationship is more important than a friendship. After all, is this even a friendship to begin with? This is something Anna inquires about. She has every right to be perplexed. Matt is at a loss for words as to how to respond.
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It’s a difficult situation. There is a monetary exchange. They’ve held hands with others, but not with each other. They’ve shared secrets, but they’ve never shared a bed. As a result, Matt makes overtures in Anna’s direction only when he feels obligated to do so, as if he’s been trained to expect the opposite of what he wants (as academics might describe it). What is it that motivates these two? When we look at them, what exactly are we looking at? If you’ve ever worked late at night on a project and become bleary-eyed and easily distracted, you’ve experienced that moment when you stare at a commonplace word like “door” for a long time and wonder, “Is that really how it’s spelled?” Anna and Matt are in a similar situation.
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The script is divided into three parts: introduction, middle, and end. During the first trimester, you begin to question whether Beckwith is incompetent, incapable of conveying basic plot information, or simply playing games with your mind. The characters keep finding themselves in predicaments that make you wonder if any boundaries were discussed at all (as when Matt is present in a room where Anna is being wanded by an obstetrics nurse, and brings Anna a gift of a human-sized teddy bear, the go-to impulse buy in unimaginative romantic comedies). The relationship between Matt and Anna appears to be blossoming by the second trimester, to the point where you wonder if the film is going to have them fall in love and get married anyway. He’s an unglamorous but decent man, the “good catch” in rom-coms who might end up with the female lead after the female lead’s heart has been broken by a sexier, but more chaotic and self-centered, male lead. Matt is constantly doing small favors for Anna, and when he inadvertently upsets her, he begins to second guess himself. Besides being grateful for the compliments he gives her, Anna appreciates how he saves her from potentially awkward situations.
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Boundaries, as well as the Woody Allen comedy and its cliches about the “natures” of men and women, are discussed in due course (and its obliviousness about age gaps). In retrospect, some of the first-trimester scenes appear to have been misjudged, or at the very least poorly thought out. If we are to appreciate the awkwardness of characters who aren’t sure how to behave, there should be a way to do so without making us feel as though the filmmaker is clumsily imitating rom-com tropes. In addition, a longish scene in which Woody Allen’s films are critiqued feels like a pointless diversion into the world of subtextuality as text. Because it is inorganic and discursive, it is by far the worst thing in the movie. It is a withering critical monologue that should have been saved for the PR tour instead of being included.
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Even in the face of these and other missteps, “Together Together” is a solid film that is determined to avoid the obvious path. The film, like Beckwith’s feature debut, “Stockholm, Pennsylvania,” invites inattentive viewers to dismiss the film on the grounds that it is something that it only pretended to be, on purpose, and for a short period of time. Harrison and Helms are a thoughtful and collaborative team. Each has a tinge of melancholy about them. Each appears determined to take the other by surprise and refuses to allow simplistic choices to go unchallenged in the process. The mutual respect between them is evident in their performances. There’s a scene in a birthing class that might be the best acting either of them has done to this point in their careers.
The conclusion of the story serves as the climax required by the trimester structure. If you’ve gotten this far, you might find yourself emotionally invested in the happiness of characters whose relationship is difficult to summarize. Montages in which you watch a character go about his or her self-involved business without noticing the other’s hurt feelings are some of the most memorable scenes in the film. It reminded me of the final shots of films such as “The Graduate,” “Big Night,” “Solitary Man,” and “Private Life,” in that it refuses to provide answers, instead leaving viewers with a single question: Now what? “The Graduate,” “Big Night,” “Solitary Man,” and “Private Life” are all films in which the final shot refuses to provide answers.
For more personality quizzes check this: Queen Bees Quiz.
