An abusive husband takes his wife to the remote cabin where he once
watched his father commit suicide.
Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: William Kresch
Starring: DeAnna Wright, Matthew Kresch
One of the many societal side effects of the recent COVID pandemic
was a huge increase in divorce rates. Stuck at home all day with their
spouse, many people began to question whether they were really willing
to spend the rest of their life with this person. Even the healthiest
of couplings were tested, but for those in abusive relationships it
must have felt like an inescapable living nightmare.
It may share its title with a Katie Holmes rom-com about finding love
during lockdown, but director William Kresch's
Alone Together is about a relationship violently
dissolving in such circumstances.
The film is set during an alternate COVID pandemic where society has
broken down in even more extreme ways than we saw during the real
event. With the city growing increasingly unsafe due to riots, Luke
(Matt Kresch) insists that his wife Nassdja (Deanna Wright) accompany him to his family's deserted upstate cabin. Nassdja is
worried that she won't be able to keep in touch with her father, who
is suffering badly from the virus. She's also secretly communicating
via text with a man with whom it seems she's been conducting an
affair.
It's clear from the off that Luke exerts a controlling influence over
Nassdja, manipulating her into feeling bad about her complaints
regarding being dragged to a cabin in the middle of nowhere. This is
no ordinary cabin however; when Luke was 11 he watched as his troubled
Vietnam vet father blew his brains out before a makeshift Buddhist
alter. Luke uses this story to gain sympathy from Nassdja, but any
sympathy the viewer might have is eroded as we watch Luke use a piece
of software that allows him to spy on Nassdja's cellphone. As she
thumbs through her photo gallery, we get a montage of the decline of
their relationship, beginning with cute pics of the couple enjoying
each other's company, culminating in Nassdja pausing over close-ups of
various scars and bruises she's sustained at her husband's
hands.
As if that wasn't enough for Nassdja to deal with, the cabin and the
surrounding woods seem to be haunted by the spirit of Luke's old man.
Nassdja sees visions of the spectre around the property, wrongly
concluding that it's members of a local militia. Meanwhile, Luke's
behaviour is growing increasingly unstable, as though his father's
spirit is taking hold of him.
Alone Together works a lot better as a grounded
thriller about a woman attempting to escape the shackles of domestic
abuse than as the hokey Shining knockoff it ultimately
descends into. As the awful Luke, Kresch is a lot scarier when he's
waging psychological warfare with his wife than when he flips out and
starts chasing her around with sharp objects. His performance as the
possessed version of Luke is too over the top to take seriously.
Similarly, Wright is very good as a woman living in quiet terror, but
a late attempt to turn her into a "badass" feels like it belongs in a
less serious film.
Alone Together suffers from plot inconsistencies,
especially regarding how and when the two characters are able to
access various forms of communications technology. The ghost story
element is similarly muddled and merely proves a distraction from the
more tangible domestic abuse drama. A few more passes at the script
might have consolidated Alone Together into a more
convincing supernatural thriller, but in its current form it's a
frustrating misfire.
