Alone Together - A Movie Review

We’re in lockdown, who cares?

After spending time in lockdown, Alone Together is a 2022 film. The pandemic is on the rise in early 2020. Two strangers end up in the same upstate New York Airbnb. As June and Charlie connect during the state lockdown, dramas from previous relationships occur.

We accomplished a lot getting through the worst of the pandemic. I watched many movies during this time to take my mind off all the chaos. Alone Together is a film that came out from the dark period. While I liked the film, it’s a generic love story that doesn’t establish any urgency in the story.

Not only did she star in the film, but Katie Holmes wrote and directed Alone Together. I put Holmes on my watch list since I saw her incredible performance in Pieces of April. June and Charlie (Jim Sturges) are one-dimensional characters.

June and Charlie don’t have a lot of depth. They have all the conversations couples share in every romance film. However, the pair have good chemistry, I liked their conversations and they introduced one another to new things. I’ll give them that. Their relationship goes a little fast barely a month into the pandemic.

Playing another couple like in Pieces of April, John (Derek Luke) is avoiding June. Most of the supporting cast appears over chats or Facetime. Melissa Leo, Zosia Momat, Ed Dixon, Neal Benari, and Laura Asten play other significant roles in the main characters.

Katie Holmes wrote Alone Together during the lockdown's early (and dark) stages. A lot of stories have been discovered during this time. This film is a good example of writing dialogue, but the finished piece feels more like an experiment than an actual film.

Some of their conversations revolve around the future, finding happiness, and unexpected topics. If I learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that human connection is a value. Dialogue repeats itself and they’re just reciting dialogue.

With the addition of the pandemic, I was expecting Alone Together to have more of an effect on the story. It’s easy to forget that the pandemic is involved with all the flirting and love triangle business. The pandemic is dispersed to the background as we hear news reports, and witness mask-wearing, and social distancing.

There’s no urgency to the story. June and Charlie aren’t worried about their circumstances. For the pandemic to play a role in the story, they should have argued about the necessity of mask-wearing and the new rules. It’s easy to forget about the pandemic. This was a time of uncertainty and it’s sugared over.

One of the characters should have had COVID-19. When June and Charlie first meet, nobody asks if the other has any symptoms. It also would have been funny to see them remain distant before feeling safe around each other.

There’s also some strange character choices and dialogue. June talks to herself a lot and she carries around a wine bottle opener. She has a very difficult time opening a bottle. And she was never told to knock before entering the bathroom?

Katie Holmes kept the story moving, but I didn’t like the ending. It’s unrealistic. There’s no sense of urgency to the story. Given the challenges presented throughout the story, a more nuanced or open-ended conclusion could have added a layer of realism.

The movie aims to capture a more lighthearted atmosphere of the pandemic. We could always use more of those, though it is time to move past the pandemic into fresh ideas. Alone Together is on Hulu if you’d like to watch it.