TOGETHER is based on two ideas that are hard to combine. On one hand, it’s about the Platonic myth of the split person who spends their life searching for the other half. This is taken very literally here. On the other hand, it’s a relationship story between teacher Millie (Alison Brie, “Mad Men,” “Glow”) and guitarist Tim (Dave Franco) who are moving from the city to a backwater town. Alison Brie, the best, funniest, scariest US actress, equips her character with a staggering, permanent kind of upbeatness and positions her Millie on the border between dream girl and manic manipulator. It quickly becomes clear that shy Tim doesn't stand a chance against Millie. Nevertheless, her public marriage proposal goes brutally wrong. Tim, an unsuccessful musician who has been deserted by his label, doesn’t have a chance at finding work in the provinces. As an urbanite he has no license, or rather he has one but can’t drive a car. So his mobility is completely dependent on Millie. He feels trapped. The relationship is doomed to fail.

The film uses a cult that follows Plato’s myth to exaggerate Tim's male fear of self-dissolution in the relationship. On a hike, Tim and Millie land in cave where they find the remains of a neo-Platonic cult. From now on, Tim can no longer separate himself from Millie, physically and soon also literally. The body horror only works to a degree, there seems to not have been a lot of money for effects, but some scenes do manage to bring to mind SOCIETY or THE SUBSTANCE. What’s missing is a hint of desire between Millie and Tim. Even the sex scene seems, up to a predictable point, strangely disinterested.

Tom Dorow

Translation: Elinor Lewy