|
TOGETHER Send This Review to a Friend
One word can contain a load of sarcasm, which is the case with the title of this comedy about a period in 1970s Sweden that gave rise to communes that attracted political dissenters who wanted to live together according to their principles. Togetherness has is problems, as writer-director Lukas Moodysson points out with frequent hilarity in this political potpourri that assembles a contingent of amusing characters largely in the process of change through their uncommon common experience.
Into the communal experiment steps Lisa Lindgren as Elisabeth, who can no longer tolerate her boozing, abusive husband Rolf (Michel Nyqvist). Gustaf Hammarsten as her brother Goran is part of the group and its stalwart pacifist leader. There really isn’t room in the already crammed household for Elizabeth and her two children, 10-year-old Stefan (Sam Kessel) and 13-year-old Eva (Emma Samuelsson). The move-in becomes the catalyst for the upheaval that gradually occurs.
Moodysson presents a wide range of characters with varying attitudes, pits them against one another and extracts much humor from their interaction. They are also contrasted with the so-called normal neighbors who resent having a commune next door, but they too have need to see life through a different lens. The film also concentrates in part on the youngsters, who have their own anxieties.
Some of the film becomes a bit excessive, but one can enjoy it on two levels. There is the sheer comic aspect, as we laugh at the characters and what they get up to and the effect on other characters, including the mix between homosexual, lesbian and heterosexual sex. It is also interesting as a cynical political statement about some of the idealism and leftist political attitude of the period. One boy is named Tet after the Tet offensive in Vietnam. But the director is less successful in making points to be taken seriously in terms of political putdowns than in presenting the comic aspects of "Together." Yet this is a very different film and sharp in ways that one won't find in American films these days. An IFC Films realese.
|