When Ed Helms plays a likable, somewhat dorky character, it is an utter gift. He is “that guy” in Together Together and his excitement over being a father is palpable. The thing is he is a gentleman in his 40s and is single and there are absolutely no prospects on the horizon.
So, he hires a surrogate. Anna (Patti Harrison) and Matt (Helms) are going to have a baby, but it’s not really her baby and as someone who knows she is not ready for motherhood, she enters the pregnancy with an attitude of c’est la vie and it is what it is. What is so endearingly charming and wholeheartedly warm about Together Together is that it is unpredictable, yes, but it does something truly special that few films ever accomplish.
These two become friends. Even holding hands friends. But there is nothing sexual about this relationship. Neither wants that and it would also be a violation of the surrogate contract. Forget the legal stuff, witnessing these two together is like watching a friendship burst into the brightest colors of a desert flower in the spring.
Each trimester brings something totally unique, touching, and is filled to the brim with elements that will bring a smile to your face. There are struggles. After all, their “relationship” is one that is difficult to define. Matt has a brother who is close with, Jacob (Timm Sharp), and is fully supportive of what his sibling is doing. After all, Matt doesn’t have a girlfriend and has no prospects at the current time. But there is something tugging at him that he cannot ignore and that is the priceless entity that is fatherhood.
Meanwhile, Anna doesn’t seem to have many friends, except for her co-worker Jules (Julio Torres), who is more of a wallflower and laugh producer… a Generation Z stuck inside his own head type.
Slowly, but surely, Anna and Matt become friendly. They enjoy each other’s company and at one point, he even asks her to move in as the pregnancy gets on in months. They go to pregnancy classes together and each attends support groups. He for upcoming parents and she for surrogates. They also see a counselor Madeline (Tig Notaro) who helps them through the landmines that naturally arise with this sort of thing.
Together Together involves a small little group, who orbit around Matt and Anna. As such, writer-director Nikole Beckwith has crafted a character study of two individuals who were thrown together for the most humane of reasons and whose emotional tether to each other grows stronger with each passing day.
Things get weird. It’s bound to, after all, films have to have a conflict at some point towards the end of the second act so that it can be resolved, and happiness can abound in the third act. Oftentimes, these disagreements or non-sharing of opinions of subject matters seem superfluous or forced upon audiences in other films. This is not the case in Beckwith’s work.
What they are going through is unique, awkward, blissful, extraordinary, glorious, and yes, weird. They cannot help becoming friends and wrestle even with that because a surrogate—traditionally—is out of the picture the moment that baby is born. This topic does come up in Together Together—thus the title! But it is handled in the most literate and mature way by these characters.
They enjoy each other’s company immensely. Who cares if they’re decades apart in ages? There is nothing romantic here. So what’s the problem? Society, friends… a combination of both? Whatever it is, Anna and Matt work at their friendship, all while his child grows and grows inside her.
There is also something important that is addressed in the film and that is that the surrogate carries this life for nine months and then just walks away. It’s got to be difficult and without giving anything away, how the movie concludes is about as perfect as a film conclusion can achieve.
Helms is sublime. This is a role that had to be written specifically for him. If it wasn’t, then the filmmaker got lucky by casting a man who embodies Matt in such a way that you just want to jump through the screen and give him a giant bear hug. He is the sweetest of men, caring and sensitive to the ebbs and flows of Anna’s pregnancy, but also his relationship with his brother and his family. It is pure joy to witness Helms work his way through this story and frankly, the film wouldn’t come close to its lovable delight without him in the lead. Matt is sensitive and never pushy, taking things organically as they happen with Anna, the pregnancy, his job, and everything that makes up his life. It may be one of The Office and The Hangover veteran’s best work. It’s refined, but ingenious.
His partner in crime in Together Together, Harrison, is a find. The young actress starts the film as such a blank slate. It’s hard to put a finger on her. Beckwith’s film commences with that first “interview” between Matt and Anna. Immediately there is something there that he sees working. That’s 100-percent because of her. She’s never done this before. She’s never met this 40-something man who wants to be a single dad. All she knows is she is sitting in some guy’s house talking about carrying his baby for nine months. To go from that scene to what is accomplished in the final shot of the movie is an actress wielding her gifts like a talent three times her age.
Creator Beckwith has the most pitch-perfect tone and timing with her film. The laughs are many, the tears come too. All told, this is a film that warms the heart—exactly when the world could use some warm and heartwarming stories. This is a decidedly modern tale of how one defines family and as such it never makes a statement one way or another about who gets to be a part of one and who is responsible for defining that element of humanity. Together Together is the most innately lovable and enjoyable film about two people thrown together for the most beautiful of reasons.
Grade: A