Together (2021) - Film Review

Bafta award-winning and Golden Globe nominated James McAvoy (Split, X-Men franchise, His Dark Materials) and Bafta award-winning and Emmy nominated Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Military Wives) star in multi award-winning writer, Dennis Kelly’s (Utopia, Pulling, The Third Day) bold, honest, funny and painfully poignant love story. Academy, Emmy and Bafta Award-winning director, Stephen Daldry (The Crown, Billy Elliot, The Reader) took on the role of directing this intimate drama set within one house.

The film is set in the UK from the first days of the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020 until May 2021. Horgan and McAvoy star as She and He, unnamed characters who were on the verge of a divorce before the pandemic and are reluctantly isolating with their son.

While their young son prefers to keep to himself when he isn't being home-schooled, He and She are forced to face the pitfalls of their relationship and the devastating loses during the pandemic. The couple are written and performed as quite horrible individuals, both of whom clearly flawed at the start of the film and learn through their faults and vulnerabilities. I actually liked this conscious decision to focus on two characters who are very, infuriating at times - which actually made both leads come across as more developed. This film also encapsulated what it was like to be on lockdown with a household, especially with portraying the conflicting emotions of wanting someone - anyone - to talk to and yet wanting to have your own alone time and feeling suffocated.

Kelly’s script is dialogue heavily, but flows effortlessly and couple that with Daldry’s decision to film many scenes in one continuous shot and the end result delivers some powerful scenes. With clear roots in theatre, the characters often break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience - which often makes the viewer feel like they are on lockdown with this insufferable couple as they face some harsh home truths. Throughout their time together, the viewers learn that the couple's issues stem from further back than the pandemic. Despite their shared history and many years in a relationship, we learn where the relationship went wrong. Similar to the work of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag, the constant breaking of the fourth wall actually allows for quite raw and emotional performances to just play out.

James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan have amazing chemistry and carry this story effortlessly. They kept up a continuous flow and captured a dynamic that you only see with actors live on stage. There were some truly heart-breaking scenes, exploring the feelings many have experienced through lockdown. Horgan’s character in particular portrays the devastating horror of the pandemic for people that were vulnerable and in care homes. Some of the most powerful scenes come through She’s grief when her mother passes away with COVID and when He is forced to change his entire outlook on life when his business crumbles due to the pandemic. This re-evaluation is not just on personal levels, but who they want to be on the outside. Samuel Logan as Artie, the couple's 10-year-old son lingers on the outskirts of the story, literally at times. We see him hearing emotional conversations while sat on the stairs, his silence often coming across as quite sad at times - this is heightened after his grandmother's death, where both parents acknowledge she was the only one to bring him out of his introversion and understood his quirks the best. I read somewhere that Artie was originally never going to appear in the film and yet having him as a silent figure is more poignant than expected.

Both leads go through a journey, learning about themselves and if they truly love each other. I like how both characters start off as rude and quite selfish characters - the development of the story allows for both to have internal transformations that change their perspectives on each other.

There are many productions recently that have written about the recent Covid-19 pandemic, but Together delves into the reality of it. There are moments of real vulnerability throughout this film that resonated on so many levels. It combined the intimacy of theatre with bold writing and stellar performances from both leads. It's a difficult and quite exposing to be this vulnerable through storytelling, but this is one that did a superb job at balancing both. Because through art, this film unapologetically gave a window into life.

In an interview, Kelly said that he originally wrote the screenplay for a theatrical release but was encouraged by Daldry and producer Sonia Friedman to make it for television. On challenges that appeared while writing, he said that he "wrote it from a very personal viewpoint" based around his experiences during the pandemic. In writing about those experiences, he said:

I don't see things when I write but I hear voices really clearly in my head. So, it was about just following them and where they go. I should say very quickly that I'm not in a relationship like the one in Together and I live with someone and she's great, she is a real laugh. But even still there were difficult times during lockdown, and it was a stressful thing. I think you draw on your own experiences but you're also drawing on other people.

This was one of my favourite films of 2021 so far and it earned itself a worthy ★★★★★.