SCREEN | Ed Helms Expects to be 'Together Together'

"Your body's a graveyard."

Bleecker Street / LevelFilm

Writer/director Nikole Beckwith charms with her unconventional indie comedy Together Together. A sort of romantic comedy without the romance part, many of the film's beats mirror familiar troupes of the typical journey of an expectant parent with a clever contemporary twist.

Starring comedians Ed Helms and Patti Harrison as a mismatched pair in a single father-to-be and his surrogate, it's a sweet portrait of strictly platonic love and strangers coming together for a meaningful relationship outside the confines of romance. Both excel in a very specific kind of awkward humour as their characters, Matt and Anna, try to respect each other's boundaries while indulging their own self-interests and tendencies.

There's a running joke about the two bonding over watching old episodes of Friends that feels so universal and relatable. Beckwith is so deftly able to capture these little small moments of true connection in order to create a sense of unusual but interesting chemistry between the lead characters. There's a scene where Matt and Anna talk very honestly about their individual personal situations in life in order to understand what led them to one another and it's just stunning in its casual frankness.

It's actually quite endearing what Together Together says about unconventional friendships and alternative paths to starting, becoming, and being part of a family. Most of the joy is purely in watching Helms and Harrison interact with each other earnestly within their sitcom-y but very contemporary premise about personal desire. It's touching in its simple honestly about relationships.

Together Together is available to stream on various digital platforms including VIFF Connect and through video on demand starting May 11th.


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