Movie Breakdown: Together Together (Noah)

Pre-Screening Stance:

I’m torn on this one. The trailer makes it seem like Ed Helms will continue to play the good-natured-but-pretty-annoying role he’s now permanently locked in for, but the movie looks subtle and sweet-natured. What will I do?

Post-Screening Ramble:

It’s such a rarity that you see a movie about a platonic relationship. Together Together is that movie. Ed Helms plays Matt, a single guy who’s decided that with the help of a surrogate (Patti Harrison) he’s going to have a child. In a normal, Hollywood rom-com (dram-com?) this would be the impetus for a two hour journey from friendship to relationship, where mishaps occur but in the end the two main characters decide to be together and raise the child. This isn’t that movie. Nikole Beckwith instead uses a clever, and relatable premise, to explore two people at very different points in their lives who are brought together by the circumstance of making a baby and realize that a new friendship is an added bonus. It’s not a flashy film, rather Beckwith keeps everything at a low-key tone and pace, with Ed Helms and Patti Harrison’s characters slowly expanding. Helms, even with his volume turned down, still grates me, his natural proclivity to ham it up rubbing against Patti Harrison’s Daria-esque subdued quirk, but the combination works well, each balancing the other out. The film doesn’t shy from some of the tropes of the romantic comedy, it just doesn’t let them subvert its platonic charm. And it doesn’t need to, as Beckwith shows with this lovely film, a friendship between two people is just as interesting as a relationship.

One Last Thought:

There’s a beautiful sense of incompleteness to the end of the film. The last shot leaves everything up in the air in just the right way.