Think of “body horror” and the images that spring to mind are most likely of the gnarly and grotesque variety, but Together’s darkly funny charm lies in how its characters refashion the subgenre towards more romantic ends.
And given the subject matter, you’d never imagine that the Spice Girls play a vital role in nailing the film’s themes.
Dave Franco and Alison Brie play couple Tim and Millie, whose decade-long relationship has left them in a bit of a romantic rut. Are they still in love or have they just grown complacent?
(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
“I love yous” begin sounding more habitual than heartfelt, and a move to an isolated town makes the presence of a partner—largely the only company they have—feel even more stifling. That is, until a hike leaves them stranded in a mysterious cavern, sparking in them a supernatural craving to be closer than ever.
After days of fighting their bodies’ inexplicable and often painful pull towards each other—at one point, their enmeshed arms have to be separated via buzzsaw—the two finally give in. As Millie lays dying of a knife wound, Tim fuses his arm to hers once more to keep her alive, at last acting out of choice rather than compulsion.
For much of Together’s runtime, Tim and Millie’s physical merging together becomes a metaphor for their codependency. For all their deep dissatisfaction, they just can’t cut the cord. Except now, they don’t want to. For all Tim’s been pulling away emotionally during their relationship, he decides he wants to stay.
Acknowledging that neither wants to be apart anymore, Millie and he agree to no longer fight the inevitable transformation and instead become “whole,” as their neighbor and cult member Jamie (Damon Herriman) puts it. As they take off their clothes and merge into a single being, horror morphs into hilarity when the Spice Girls’ vinyl Tim popped in begins playing their slow ballad “2 Become 1.”
“Come a little bit closer, baby,” sings Emma Bunton, aka Baby Spice. And they do.
The needledrop in Michael Shanks’ directorial debut has special significance—the Spice Girls are Millie’s favorite band, and her mentioning as much to Tim on their first date led to him surprising her with this vinyl on their second. Him choosing it now, all these years later, is a fond callback to a time when their relationship was brand new, and rife with potential. Now it could be, once again.
“The connection is deeper than anything you could’ve ever imagined,” promised Jamie of the fusion ritual. Now Tim is finally on Millie’s emotional wavelength, once again the man who listened to her likes and remembered them.
On the other hand, the song’s message of safe sex becomes laughably ironic.
“It’s basically a love song, but it’s got a message—make sure you put a condom on if you’re going to have sex. We all think that’s very important,” Melanie Brown (Scary Spice) once said about the song’s theme.
Except here, hands slip inside torsos, eyelashes become glued together and mouths are melded as any physical and emotional barriers between the couple are stripped away, in a very literal interpretation of the song’s title. For all the slow stagnation of their relationship, Millie and Tim have finally found a way to…spice up their life.
