Bafta-winning lockdown black comedy a confronting watch
Together (M, 92mins) Directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin Reviewed by James Croot ★★★ 1⁄
2
‘You’ve the same level of charm as diarrhoea in a pint glass.’’ ‘‘I hate your face.’’ He (James McAvoy) and She (Sharon Horgan) haven’t exactly seen eye-to-eye for some time. The self-employed businessman and charity co-ordinator’s relationship really only endured for the sake of their 10-year-old son Artie (Samuel Logan). In fact, it was only saved by sympathy for a recent mushroom poisoning incident, one that both suspect may have been deliberate (but each for different reasons).
Now, however, their ongoing animosity is being put to the ultimate test on March 24, 2020, as Britain is plunged into a pandemicinduced lockdown.
Although she can still come and go to work (‘‘saying goodbye to you is the best part of my day’’, she laughs), he is in charge of homeschooling and cooking (the latter made more difficult by Artie’s insistence on only eating nearimpossible-to-obtain aubergines).
Both though have bigger worries. Having made the painful decision to leave her aged mother – Artie’s only living grandparent – out of their bubble, it has now become increasingly clear to them that she needs assistance. Fortunately, her sister has persuaded theirmum to take up a place in a care home – surely the safest place to be while this ‘‘temporary health crisis’’ plays out.
Told via a series of anecdotelaced discussions and monologues, mostly delivered direct to camera (dramatically over the course of that first year, but all shot in just 10 days), Together feels more like amore serious version of the David Tennant-Michael Sheen series Staged than any of the other Covid dramas unleashed on audiences so far.
Yes, there are thematic similarities to last year’s rom-comcum-heist-movie Locked Down, but this is essentially a single location two-hander that wouldn’t look out of place as amodern day Play for Today.
Indeed, there’s a certain theatricality that some audience members may struggle with, as well as a breathless script that packs in more dialogue than even the notoriously verbose Aaron Sorkin would think appropriate.
That it all works is down to Dennis Kelly’s (Utopia) smart script, which throws in some surprising and unexpected twists, Stephen Daldry’s (The Crown, The Hours) taut direction and the braveness of McAvoy (His Dark Materials) and Horgan (Catastrophe) to lay their emotions bare.
Regrets, recriminations, as well as remonstrations about the British government’s handling of the pandemic (they both rage about the ‘‘stupidity and sheer dumb f…ery’’ that they believe cost lives), are scattered among the insults and occasional supportive noises between the pair, making viewing something of a rollercoaster ride.
Winner of the TV Bafta for best single drama earlier this week, Together is perhaps better described as a spiky, snarky, black, sometimes bleak comedy that offers Kiwis a very different view of Covid’s initial impact.