By John Corrado
A couple find themselves being increasingly bound together in Together, the new body horror rom-com from writer-director Michael Shanks. But the real selling point of the film is the casting of actual couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco, whose chemistry adds an extra layer of interest.
The real-life married couple star as Tim and Millie Wilson, who have been together for a decade when they decide to move to the country. When we first meet them, they are throwing a party to say goodbye to their city friends.
The move is for her, with Millie having gotten a new job teaching at a rural elementary school. But it will put struggling musician Tim farther away from his old bandmates. There is an element of codependency in their relationship. He can’t drive, but she can’t cook, with them even joking about how much they rely on each other.
And then strange things begin happening. While exploring their new surroundings, the couple falls into a bizarre underground cave. They wake up to find a gooey, glue-like substance sticking their legs together. What Shanks is doing here is crafting a mostly fun little body horror flick, that uses genre trappings to elevate what is otherwise a pretty standard romantic dramedy about the slow-moving decline of a relationship.
That said, Together doesn’t traffic in subtleties. The central metaphor gets a bit obvious, and the film goes on a little longer than it needs to, even at a relatively lean 102 minutes. The squishy body horror elements do add texture, but the film at times feels like the bubblegum pop version of it. But, if it’s not as extreme or bold as something like The Substance, Shanks still stages a few memorable moments that embrace the possibilities of the genre.
This includes a wildly bawdy bathroom scene that takes the premise to its natural conclusion, and also provides the best showcase for how the film is able to draw both cringes and laughs out of it. Brie and Franco are perfectly adept at toeing that line, and the film is mainly worth seeing as a showcase for what they can do together.
The two leads obviously have plenty of natural chemistry together, and the film seems designed to capitalize off of it, allowing them both to play to their strengths. Maybe it doesn’t quite add up to more than the sum of its parts. But Together is consistently kept fun and enjoyable to watch, largely thanks to its kooky premise and the performances of the two leads.
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