X
- 2021
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 30 m
- 2021
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 30 m
Summary When young loner Anna (Patti Harrison) is hired as the gestational surrogate for Matt (Ed Helms), a single man in his 40s who wants a child, the two strangers come to realize this unexpected relationship will quickly challenge their perceptions of connection, boundaries and the particulars of love.
Written By: Nikole Beckwith
- 2021
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 30 m
- 2021
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 30 m
Together Together
70
6.9
Where to Watch
Summary When young loner Anna (Patti Harrison) is hired as the gestational surrogate for Matt (Ed Helms), a single man in his 40s who wants a child, the two strangers come to realize this unexpected relationship will quickly challenge their perceptions of connection, boundaries and the particulars of love.
Written By: Nikole Beckwith
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 32 Critic Reviews
70
75% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
25% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 32 Critic Reviews
70
75% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
25% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
It’s bright and witty and packed with laughs, but those laughs stem from real empathy and understanding of its characters.
Hovering over Together Together is the expectation that two people who enjoy each other’s company as much as Matt and Anna do will eventually end up together. Beckwith plays with this trope nicely.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 User Ratings
6.9
67% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
29% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
5% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 User Ratings
6.9
67% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
29% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
5% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
An unquestionably powerful marrow splitting response to the male-centric Woody Allen (even the credit sequence font choice is smartly wink, wink) type filmmaking that not only tells a similar banter based story but from a noticeably less “pathos” perspective. The storytelling is always a smart step ahead of old-hat tropes. The directing really brings the most out of the acting within fairly undramatic scenes. Harrison’s performance shines. Beckwith’s chops and Allen calling out gaul (both in the script but also in the clever filmmaking) needs to be talked about and talked about.
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I love Together Together because it’s a sweet and straightforward story surrounding surrogacy. It’s void of Hollywood dramatics and firmly places Ed Helms into that older best friend category on screen.
It’s an ode to the way that even impermanent relationships can be profoundly meaningful.
Together Together makes for comfortable viewing elevated by Harrison’s sparky presence.
For a movie about the inequities inherent in both parent/surrogate relationships and expecting father/expecting mother relationships, the stakes hover surprisingly low in the plot stratosphere.
Together Together suffers a little from being too polite, as a comedy it lacks snarl, and as a drama it lacks, well, event. Nothing much really happens – but maybe that’s the point.
It’s hard to know exactly what to say about this gentle romantic comedy-drama about a middle-aged single father-to-be who begins falling for the 26-year-old surrogate he’s hired to give birth to his child. It’s an on-again/off-again relationship that tiptoes through issues of connection, loneliness, boundaries and love through a lens that seeks to mix strained intimacy, new dad cluelessness and tentative contractual distancing. It’s an intriguing premise that, at least theoretically, pushes the limits of the standard rom-com formula. And, for a story told in three acts, it conveniently draws upon the three-trimester format to pull that off. However, for all these strengths, writer-director Nikole Beckwith’s second feature suffers from several script issues, most notably an opening act whose flow consists mostly of a series of forced, awkward conversations, an abrupt ending that brings new meaning to rushed, deliberate ambiguity, and an overall approach that’s often a little too polite for its own good. Nevertheless, the picture generally becomes more engaging the longer it goes on and features fine performances by newcomer Patti Harrison, veteran Ed Helms and a colorful cast of walk-on supporting characters. Had the film been a little more willing to take chances (especially given its already-edgy material) and tightened up its screenplay with an extra measure of definitiveness, this one could have been a genuine knock-out, but its tendency to play it safe and vague keeps it from being carried to full term.
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This is corny and cliched but yet surprisingly sweet. At first the main story didn't really interest me but the way the plot develops left me interested enough to see what happened. It came across as more of a long TV show type of a watch, rather than a big Hollywood type film but that's not always a bad thing. This isn't an exciting, mindblowing type film but its got some nice moments and its worth a watch if it sounds of interest to you, I suppose. There is a poignancy to it but it is a bit clunky.
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It's not usual to see a story like this one on film.
A surrogate mother who befriends the single man who hired her to bear him a child.
It's not an ordinary comedy, but it's one that lumbers along even though it could be argued that from the comic treatment this should be lighter in narrative terms.
Even so, the unusual nature of their arrangement is evidently constructed for comedy, however and even at the risk of looking like an stereotype, one would believe that people looking for a baby in this way would be a **** couple, or a woman.
Seeing a straight man looking for a kid to raise on his own is not a taboo by any means, but thematically the film doesn't make the most of it, or in other words it doesn't do so in a way that feels organic.
Surprisingly Ed Helms makes it work as far as possible, but the one who stands out is Patti Harrison.
She's the most compelling element, humorously speaking.
I think this movie received more flattering reviews than its story deserved, but I would still recommend it.
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Ed Helms plays a single man in his 40s, who hires a 26-year-old (Patti Harrison) to be his surrogate mother. They talk…for most of the movie. A few supporting characters have moments (Julio Torres is fun as a her eye-rolling **** friend). Still, it’s mostly the duo. Luckily, they aren’t without charm: Helms with his awkward hesitancy and Harrison with her expressive eyes. Even though it’s billed as a comedy, there are essentially no laughs, just lots of awkward moments. It also never gains much emotional traction or variation in pacing, so it feels like elevated mumblecore.
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Another movie with a **** non-ending. If you are going to "leave it up to my imagination" instead of actually telling a complete story, I might as well just watch the trailer and imagine the whole **** thing. Anyone could come up with a scenario, but the conclusion to the scenario is the interesting part! This is just an hour and a half set-up with no payoff. Waste of time!
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Awards
Film Independent Spirit Awards
• 2 Nominations
The Queerties
• 2 Nominations
Oregon Independent Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
