Together
aka Tillsammans |
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Sweden/Denmark/Italy, 2000. Rated
R. 106 minutes.
Cast: Lisa Lindgren, Michael Nyqvist,
Gustav Hammarsten, Emma Samuelsson, Sam Kessel, Anja Lundkvist, Jessica
Liedberg, Ola Norell, Axel Zuber, Shanti Roney, Olle Sarri, Cecilia Frode,
Lars Frode, Henrik Lundström, Emil Moodysson, Thérèse Brunnander, Claes
Hartelius, Sten Ljunggren
Writer: Lukas Moodysson
Cinematographer: Ulf Brantås
Producer: Lars Jönsson
Director: Lukas Moodysson
LINKS
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ith
so much counterfeit emotionality in movies, few writers and directors seem to
understand that real warmth and beauty can be found not in outrageously contrived
premises like those of Sweet November,
Angel Eyes, or The
Family Man, but in the everyday lives of ordinary people. "Wait," you
might well object, "how can you have moving romance without an
opera-singing, mandolin-playing Italian captain? How can you have inspiring
drama without Meryl Streep or Diane Keaton dying of a terminal illness? How
can you have heartwarming comedy without Jim Carrey making fart jokes? And how
can you have all these things in the same movie? How?" Writer/director Lukas
Moodysson could teach a course on how.
In his superb feature-film debut, Show Me
Love, Moodysson took us into the life of an awkward teenage girl struggling
with her homosexuality and her longing for the most popular girl in school.
It's the sort of debut filmmakers dream of. Movie studios are always selling
movies that make us laugh and cry, but Show Me Love actually did it,
with naked home-movie realism, a light touch, a nonjudgmental eye, and such
compassion and understanding that we had to wonder if Lukas Moodysson was not
a lesbian teenage girl himself.
AboutFilm.Com
The Big Picture
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But no, Moodysson is a grown man, and for his sophomore effort, he has chosen
to follow life in a Stockholm commune, circa 1975, called "Tillsammans" (i.e.,
"Together"). Tillsammans is a run-down suburban home with nine people crammed
into it. It is run by conflict-averse Goran (Gustav Hammarsten), who, as the
film opens, is rescuing his sister Elisabeth (Lisa Lindgren) from her abusive
husband Rolf (Michael Nyqvist) by bringing her and her children, unhappy Eva
(Emma Samuelsson) and angry Stefan (Sam Kessel), to stay at Tillsammans. This
ups the population to a whopping twelve. A vastly different world from that
of a traditional suburban housewife awaits Elisabeth--a world of casual attitudes
toward nudity, sex, and drug use, but intense attitudes toward politics, the
presence of television sets, and the schedule of chores. Tillsammans is a commune
that's "together" in name only.
Beyond that, outlining the plot of a slice-of-life film such as Together
is a pointless exercise, as it not only spoils the movie's surprises, but also
makes the story seem so much less than it really is. Suffice it to say, as Elisabeth
and her children make the difficult adjustment to commune living, Moodysson
delves into the residents' humble conflicts, dramas, and relationships, including
those of the children, while also tracking Rolf's efforts to get his life straightened
out. 
No
outcome is assured; no event is telegraphed in advance. Moodysson's story constantly
delights and surprises, finding laughter and pain at unexpected moments.
It's so easy to believe that Together is an accurate portrayal of commune
life, not because Moodysson has necessarily set out to make an accurate
portrayal of commune life. We get the distinct impression that that's not his
primary concern. Rather, Tillsammans feels like a real commune because Moodysson
has filled it with genuine, distinct personalities whose only common denominator
is a leftist socio-political perspective. It's as if, in order to realize communal
life, Moodysson has simply imagined twelve real people in a house together.
Whatever happens as a result of their personalities and interactions--well,
then, you can almost hear him reasoning, that must be what communal life is
like. This goes to an important principle of storytelling: if you can believe
the characters, then you can believe everything else.
Although less emotionally moving than Show Me Love (a movie in which
you actively root for the two protagonists to get together) but shot in a similar
low-budget home-movie style, Together is a work of greater sophistication
and complexity. Instead of only teenagers, Moodysson examines people of varied
age groups, lifestyles, and backgrounds with equal assurance and sympathy. He
unerringly finds the humanity in each character, thus making you care about
the people, even those who aren't all that likable.
Some small pacing problems stemming from the integration of Rolf's story with
the rest of the narrative do mar the film, as does Moodysson's failure to deal
fully with the difficulty of alcoholism recovery. These are complaints barely
worth mentioning, though, when the whole is so strong. The counterfeit emotionality
dominating the multiplexes will relegate Together's theatrical run in
the United States to art-house theaters in large metropolitan areas, but it
is well worth seeking out.
Review
© September 2001 by AboutFilm.Com and the author.
Images © 2001 IFC Films. All Rights Reserved.
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