TOGETHER A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
TOGETHER (TILLSAMMANS), by writer and director Lukas Moodysson (SHOW ME LOVE), is set in a Swedish commune in 1975. The pseudo-radicals who live there are such unwavering Marxist Leninists that they refuse to drink Coca-Cola and eat meat. Although they profess noble socialist sentiments -- Göran (Gustav Hammarsten) lectures the disbelieving commune kids about how their life together is like warm porridge -- they spend most of their lives in petty squabbles, with an argument about who washed up last being a typical one. Another disagreement comes over whether it is acceptable to walk around the kitchen with absolutely nothing on below the waist.
If TOGETHER is supposed to be a comedy, then it is a completely laughless one even though some of the situations do have promise. As a drama about the shallow and lonely existence of the commune members, it is slightly more effective, but the director's flat presentation never involves us much in the lives of these remarkably uninteresting characters. The handheld camerawork, full of gratuitous zooms, gives it a home movie feel.
Life outside the commune is even more depressing than life within. One guy breaks his own plumbing just so he can send for the plumber in order to have someone to talk to. The best of the small stories concerns an attractive but bitterly unhappy girl of about eleven and her pudgy, would-be boyfriend. The characters have some fleeting moments of bliss. The sullen young girl, who spends most of her life in retreat, experiences a moment of contentment when she sleeps with her boyfriend. Just sleeps. And, as the movie drones on, sleeping is something that you may find yourself contemplating.
TOGETHER runs a long 1:46. The film is in Swedish with English subtitles. It is rated R for "nudity/sexuality and language," would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, September 14, 2001. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.
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