“TOGETHER TOGETHER” My rating: B
90 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Given its premise — middle-aged bachelor hires young woman to carry his child — and the presence of funnyman Ed Helms, one might expect “Together Together” to hit the usual rom-com cliches.
Nope.
Writer/director Nicole Beckwith’s sophomore effort (her debut was the little-seen Saoirse Ronan thriller “Stockholm, Pennsylvania”) delivers a delicate character study more interested in human truths than easy laughs.
The resulting film is a low-keyed affair that worms its way into th head and heart.
Matt (Helms) is an app developer who advertises for a woman to carry his child. He settles on Anna (Patti Harrison), who as a teen gave birth to an illegitimate baby and put it up for adoption. She’s level-headed and apparently neurosis-free…she sees this as a business deal with little need for sentiment or emotional fireworks.
Moreover, she’s merely the vessel. She’ll be implanted with another woman’s egg fertilized by Matt’s sperm in the lab. It’s about as impersonal as pregnancy gets.
For Matt, though, it’s totally personal. His romantic relationships have all failed, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t love to share. He desperately wants to be a parent.
Which makes for some mildly comic moments as he tries to dictate Anna’s eating habits and lifestyle choices. He insists on accompanying her to the OB-GYN and doing all the things expected of expectant fathers — even when Anna just wants to be left alone to gestate.
Beckwith’s screenplay gently pushes its role-reversal approach (no-nonsense woman, nurturing man); as both writer and director she displays a light touch, particularly in the witty/insightful banter between the lead characters.
Movie convention dictates that after spending nine months together Matt and Anna will fall into each other’s arms.
Well, there are tinglings of attraction and genuine emotional connection…but “Together Together” doesn’t believe in fairy tale endings. Here’s a movie that recognizes that with luck you can achieve some things, but you can’t have it all
Beckwith has assembled a strong supporting cast: Tig Notaro as a psychiatrist, Rosalind Chow as an M.D., Nora Dunn and Fred Malamed as Matt’s folks, and especially Sufe Bradshaw as a seen-it-all obstetrics nurse. All avoid the temptation to get cute, delivering light but ultimately realistic perfs.
Ultimately, though, this is a two-hander in which Helms and Harrison expertly navigate the relationship of two decent people committed to bringing another life into the world.
We could do worse.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 
I enjoy your reviews – always have from the time I first read one in The Star. That said, why would you use “perfs” in this review. It is not a word, it is a lazy way to try to write. This is a word which does not become you. You are better than this.
Jennifer, in the reviewer’s *gentle* defense, I think that term has become part of the general film review parlance at Variety/Deadline/The Wrap/other Hollywood Industry trades. Or it could be a typo? But I am mindful of your point. I personally cringe every time I read the word “ankle” or “prexy” in Variety. :)
Kinda tired of middle aged man- young woman stories