Together Together

Not a bad way to spend 90 minutes, but ultimately felt like a bit of fluff.

Highlights:

• The window into some of the things a woman goes through during pregnancy.

• The warm feeling I got from the platonic love between the main characters.

• Patti Harrison and Ed Helms, who are both charming in this.

Lowlights:

• The story is quite contrived, and borderline cheesy.

• Very limited character development.

• Most of the humor falls flat.

• The shots at Woody Allen felt cheap.

• The abruptness of the ending seemed like a cop-out, conveniently avoiding the inevitable conflicting emotions of this scenario.

I was able to see this at Sundance Festival 2021's virtual screening.

"Together Together" is about how Matt, a single, middle-aged tech worker in Northern California hires Anna, who is in her twenties, as a surrogate mother to his child. As their relationship progresses and Anna gets closer to delivering their baby, they grow more emotionally dependent on each other. The film examines the boundaries between their relationship, not only as a surrogate mother to the baby's father, but also as they become friends.

This is the kind of movie people often refer to as "cute." It's certainly not a groundbreaking effort that will change your life, but it will provoke some laughs and maybe even cause you to get teary-eyed in a couple of scenes. I thought the film's opening scene with both characters nervously interviewing each other was very funny. Anna's continues to revise her answers to Matt's questions as he scribbles them into a notebook, and he does his best to accommodate her by crossing out many of her responses as she asks him to.

I found Ms. Harrison to be very believable in her role. Her performance turns the role of Anna into someone very real and vulnerable; there's an innocence about her, but also a loneliness, something we learn she and Matt have in common as the film progresses. Ed Helms is also effective in his role, but he plays the role very much like, well, Ed Helms. Except for a scene at the end of the film, the part doesn't really require him to step very far out of his comfort zone. Julio Torres is also very funny as Anna's zoned-out co-worker, as well as Tig Notaro's brief role as a therapist and Sufe Bradshaw as a hospital technician.

"Together Together" won't win any big awards, but I recommend it for what it is: a gentle comedy about the importance of non-romantic relationships, a theme that should be explored more often. The plot is often predictable, but, let's face it, isn't that typical of films like this?

A sidenote: Curiously, this feature was presented as one of Sundance 2021's gay-themed films. The character of Matt is a single, middle-aged man living in San Francisco. During his two or three discussions with Anna when she asks him about his his past relationships, he seems to be deliberately explaining things in a vague way, intentionally leaving out genders. His character clearly struck me as a closeted gay man and I expected an eventual reveal as the film continued. It didn't happen. Instead, the director stated during the Q&A that she had written the part of Matt to be heterosexual. I was left feeling confused why he was written to be so deliberately coy and avoidant when mentioning genders in his past relationships if he was straight. I'm assuming this was categorized as a "gay themed film" due to Ms. Harrison's participation, but she's playing a straight, cisgender woman in her role.

I really enjoyed this movie. I enjoyed the relationship that transpired between Matt and his surrogate. But the most disappointing thing about this whole movie was the abrupt ending!!! It was not satisfactory at all. I also wanted to know what the sex of the baby was and what he decided to name him/her. Plus I wanted to see more of their connection and what was going to transpire after the baby was born. Very disappointed at the end or lack there of.

It's hard to put emotion into words sometimes, and this movie made it even harder for me. Just brilliant all throughout. It's fascinating how stories can make us feel like we're going through scenarios that we may have never been or might never go through personally. I hard tears by the end.

Amazing directing, dialogue and especially terrific acting. Patti Harrison has my heart now.

It's not necessarily a romcom to begin with. It's clear Anna and Matt have a connection but it doesn't transpire into something romantic, though the bond is there. Two awkward, lonely people who share an unfamiliar connection as a surrogate mother and a single father. The actors made the best out of it, I feel. Many great moments that give you hints of a good movie; each moment feels like it's leading to "that scene" that's going to make you fall in love with the movie but the scene never comes.

Ends with a cliff hanger but not the type you'd bang your head on about "What's next? How could they end it there?". Still a good watch, slightly above average, just that it's forgettable.