Written by Linda
March 08, 2009
A bunch of Swedish hippies try to make a difference in the world (to the tunes of ABBA, of course).
The Seattle International Film Festival chose four new directors as "emerging masters" for a special focus this year. I dare say, they overlooked my personal choice as one of the great new directors of recent years: Lukas Moodysson of Sweden.
After the delightful and modern coming-of-age schoolgirl romance Show Me Love (Fucking Åmal), he now comes out with the completely different, and equally refreshing Together.
The story takes place in mid-1970s Stockholm (the tone set by the swelling tune of ABBA's "S.O.S.") in a communal hippie house. Leaving her loutish husband, Elizabeth takes her two children and moves into the house where her brother Göran is the peaceful and reluctant head of the household. The many characters in the house are trying to live by communal ideals, but find their personal, political, and sexual differences getting in the way.
As Elizabeth and her kids slowly start to shake off the remnants of their stifling mainstream previous life, you find yourself warming, like they do, to even the quirkiest and most annoying of the housemates. No one is a saint, but even the most hateful of the characters turns out to have a heart.
The idea of "one big happy family" may be a myth, but Together takes the good with the bad, and comes up with a funny, accepting, and touching compromise for the lives of all of these mis-matched people. The film is heartwarming, without being cloying; delightful, despite a somewhat jaded sensibility. I absolutely loved it!
