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The prodding inquiries “Have you ever stolen anything?” “Are you religious?” “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” that open Nikole Beckwith’s modest, charming dramedy “Together Together” don’t spring from a painfully intrusive first date. Rather, as an open Anna (Patti Harrison) spills her proclivity for thieving pens and her experience of putting her baby up for adoption while in high school to a perplexed Matt (Ed Helms), she’s interviewing to become his surrogate.
Together Together review: Ed Helms, Patti Harrison are a great team latimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from latimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
David Lewis April 20, 2021
This image released by Bleecker Street shows Ed Helms, left, and Patti Harrison in a scene from “Together Together.” Photo: Tiffany Roohani, Associated Press
“Together Together” opens with a brilliant comic scene in which a nerdish single man interviews a quirky female job candidate about carrying his child.
It’s a classic meet-cute moment for a romantic comedy. But this poignant surrogacy story centers on platonic love, not romance; and it ultimately plays like a drama, not a comedy.
This upending of genre expectations is not an accident, even if the movie could have used more of the droll humor found in its dazzling initial frames. Fortunately, the high points and there are several make the film worthwhile viewing, especially a breathtaking finale that will linger in the minds of those who watch.
Ed Helms (left), Patti Harrison in Together Together, directed by Nikole Beckwith. (Tiffany Roohani/Bleecker Street/TNS)
Movie review: ‘Together Together’ a poignant story about being alone in a world of togetherness
Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service, (TNS)
When Matt (Ed Helms) interviews Anna (Patti Harrison) to be his gestational surrogate, she has to reveal a few intimate details: she’s not close to her family, and she had a baby as a teenager that she gave up for adoption. But she says something else that’s even more revealing of the main thesis for Nikole Beckwith’s sensitive surrogacy dramedy, “Together Together.” Anna attempts to impart why she wants to serve as a surrogate for Matt, a single, straight man in his 40s: “I know it’s not the best thing in the world, being alone,” she says. “Not that you are alone. But you are doing this alone.”