Together

Together FL, 2000, 1 ¾ stars

An uneven togetherness

From The Orlando Weekly, November 2, 2001

Every character in Together seems to be coming apart, coming of age or coming out of the closet. Although the Swedish film’s emotional scenes are starkly real and well acted, there’s just a bit too much going on in the socialist commune the characters share to create a single coherent story.

Goran (Gustaf Hammarsten), the head of the commune, is struggling with the complications of an open relationship with his girlfriend while emotionally supporting his sister, Elisabeth (Lisa Lindgren), who has just moved in with her two kids to escape an abusive marriage. Others in the commune are also dealing with shattered relationships and sexual confusion. Surprisingly, the children in the group are more mature than the adults, as they come to grips with the breakdown of their families and their feelings for the opposite gender. It’s quite an ironic predicament for a family with the surname Together.

Director Lukas Moodysson creates a topsy-turvy, sexually charged environment but ultimately can’t fuse the separate characters’ lives together into a captivating tale. By trying too hard to create realism and moving from one event to the next with unseemly edits, he lessens the emotional impact the film could have had with a stronger story and more mature direction.

© 2001 Orlando Weekly / MeierMovies, LLC

For more information on the movie, visit IMDB and Wikipedia.