There have been plenty of rom-coms on the issue of surrogacy already, but Together Together bucks the usual trends. The film stars Ed Helms as a single man who is hearing his own biological clock ticking, so he hires a woman, played by comedian Patti Harrison, to be surrogate to his child. What looks like a typical genre film actually unfolds in ways that defy our expectations.
Together Together was part of the Sundance lineup earlier this year, and I generally enjoyed it mainly for the performances and for the way writer/director Nikole Beckwith flipped the rom-com script. Rather than this being a story of a romance with a rather unusual start, it actually turns out to be a story of budding friendship, seen from the lens of one awkward guy and a trendy, if aimless, younger woman.
It’s a modest effort that really shines in the central relationship, and is worth seeking out. The film also stars Rosalind Chao, Tig Notaro, Evan Jonigkeit, Anna Konkle, Fred Melamed, and Nora Dunn.
Together Together opens April 23rd and comes to digital on May 11th.
When young loner Anna is hired as the gestational surrogate for Matt, a single man in his 40s who wants a child, the two strangers come to realize this unexpected relationship will quickly challenge their perceptions of connection, boundaries and the particulars of love.
