Now on Hulu, Alone Together was written and directed by Katie Holmes, who also stars, in her first role since The Secret: Dare to Dream prompted in us many a derisive chuckle. It must be stated up front that Alone Together is a COVID movie, set in New York during the early days of the pandemic, when lockdowns were just getting revved up and the city’s hospitals were rapidly reaching capacity. It’s also a romance that at least partially answers the question as to what Jim Sturgess has been up to since the immortal Geostorm – so now he’s been in movies about two wildly different global meltdowns, and not just anyone can say that.
ALONE TOGETHER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: This is Woody Allen’s New York: vibrant, beautiful, twinkling, full of life. Then it’s March 15, 2020: COVID city. The streets are increasingly empty. All the subway and commuter trains June (Holmes) wants to take are delayed or canceled. Her boyfriend John (Derek Luke) rented an AirBnB house out of the city to – ha ha ha – wait out the virus for a week or two. Remember when that was a hopeful possibility? John decides to stay with his parents, so June goes alone, taking a Lyft out to the house. She finds not the hidden key, but rather Charlie (Sturgess), who’s already taken residence. Damn place is double-booked.
It’s late. She has no transportation. Neither wants to budge, and who can blame them? Charlie caves in, tells her she can stay. So she agrees, reluctantly, since this very nice house, which looks like at least a couple thousand square feet, only has one bedroom and one bathroom. Uh huh. He takes the couch. Neither considers calling the property owner to sort out the error, because Fate is pushing them together, Fate being a nom de plume for the screenwriter, whose name is Katie Holmes. Will there be a scene in which June opens the bathroom door and sees Charlie’s bare ass and it’s all awkward? Uh huh. Will there eventually be a scene in which neither at all minds whatsoever that the other sees his/her bare ass? Uh huh.
But I’m simplifying things. They do get to know each other over an adult beverage or three. He restores old motorcycles and is coming off a yucky breakup. She’s a restaurant critic who’s increasingly wondering if things aren’t so great with John. His mom (Melissa Leo) calls to check in. She calls her grandfather in a nursing home, and he doesn’t recognize her; he has dementia. June and Charlie ride bikes, hit the Mickey D’s drive-thru, get drunk and fire up the karaoke machine, make out, wake up next to each other in bed, eat Spaghetti-Os for the first time in years – together. So. Then. Now what?
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Alone Together’s mediocrity place it somewhere between the amusing Locked Down and the cruddy Safer at Home and nowhere near the very good Help or Bo Burhnam: Inside in the COVID-movie sweepstakes. Trivia: Holmes and Luke also co-starred in Pieces of April, and will reunite a third time, in an upcoming Holmes-directed outing titled Rare Objects.
Performance Worth Watching: Holmes’ presence here is winning and not without emotional range, but her role as written lacks the depth and focus needed to be more than just a banal exercise.
Memorable Dialogue: June’s bestie (Zosia Mamet) spins positive: “You might actually make a friend in the middle of this.”
Sex and Skin: Male butt, female sideboob, a heavily stylized horizontal PG-13 artsy-shadows squint-at-the-screen-to-try-to-see-what’s-what schtup.
Our Take: Alone Together is slightly charming, slightly boring flimsy-whimsy romanto-drama that’s fine in the moment but doesn’t have quite enough substance to stick to the ribs of your memory. Holmes and Sturgess play good, decent people who inspire enough warmth in each other to make us hope for the best for them, but nobody’s going to be so inspired by their romance that we’d jump up and down and root for them to confess their love to each other. I won’t reveal what happens between June and Charlie – even though you can probably see it coming – but they could live happily ever after or bittersweetly part at the end and we’d feel the same gentle tug of shrugging dissatisfaction.
There are moments when hanging out with this pair is entirely pleasant. They’re not bad company, not at all. They’re attractive people, mildly psychologically wounded middle-class types trying to reorient themselves within the pandemic-stricken world. Watching them smooch isn’t unpleasant; watching them ride bicycles and sing karaoke during plaintive, musical montages feels like an ideal time to return some texts. Predictable story beats occur, right in line with some of the tragic difficulties many of us faced while in lockdown, and it feels more contrived than authentic.
Holmes explores a compelling idea – an eerily quiet global catastrophe is an opportunity for two middle-aged people to drop their guard and enjoy the pleasures of fresh companionship. The irony that June and Charlie were both more lonely before the pandemic isn’t lost on anyone. But Holmes primarily unearths cliches: your time may be short, so be kind and follow your heart, etc. She doesn’t downplay the catastrophe of COVID for the trifling whims of its protagonists’ emotional well-being, but the film ultimately veers a little too close to triteness for its own good.
Our Call: SKIP IT. Alone Together is a nice movie, for better but also for worse. There’s just not much to get excited about here.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.