Happy ‘Together’ Looks Kindly on Messy Lives in a Commune

It’s a word painted on a been-around VW bus, the name of the collective in Stockholm that jointly owns the vehicle, and the title of this relaxed, intimate, wonderfully clear-eyed and altogether charming Swedish comedy of manners that deals with the accident-waiting-to-happen phenomenon known as communal living.

It’s November 1975 in Stockholm, and the eight adults and two children who make up Together are introduced dancing in delight at the news of the death of that eternal boogeyman of the left, Spain’s Francisco Franco. Dedicated to “revolting against the bourgeois way of living,” the commune’s self-centered members claim to like the idea of being, as the earnest Goran (Gustaf Hammarsten) puts it, “like a porridge: part of something bigger, warm, soft, together.” Are they fooling themselves? Maybe, and then again, maybe not.

“Together” is the second film by 31-year-old Swedish writer-director Lukas Moodysson, and those who saw his first, the effective “Show Me Love” (awkwardly retitled from the profane Swedish original), have already experienced the traits that make this new and more accomplished venture so satisfying.

Moodysson has the rare ability to combine an exact sense of the silly, misguided ways people tend to behave, the knack we all have for embarrassing ourselves, and a keen empathy for how irresistible the messiness of life turns out to be.

This is a filmmaker who easily works the pain and humor of existence into comedies in which the jokes are not in one-liners or pratfalls, but in character and situation, in the foibles of a commonly shared humanity. To watch “Together” is to go on a journey both familiar and unexpected, where the slightly ridiculous merges with the almost sublime.

The plot is precipitated by a crisis in the life of Goran’s sister Elisabeth (Lisa Lindgren). She’s leaving her abusive, alcoholic husband Rolf (Michael Nyqvist), and she needs a place to stay with their children, 13-year-old Eva (Emma Samuelsson) and 10-year-old Stefan (Sam Kessel). Goran, an emotional pushover universally known as “the nicest, kindest, sweetest man,” wants to give up his room, but his opportunistic girlfriend, Lena (Anja Lundqvist), says no. Instead Elisabeth and family get a small space meant for meditation and relaxation, from which they venture forth to meet the collective.

What they find is a place where clothing is optional but no one can be bothered to answer the phone, where sexual relationships are open but doing the dishes is considered counterrevolutionary. As for the children, one of them is named Tet (after the Vietnamese offensive) and likes to play Pinochet and the Torturers in his free time. Despite their claims of idealism, the main characters prove to be, to no great surprise, remarkably self-absorbed.

Aside from those already mentioned, the key players include: the recently divorced Anna (Jessica Liedberg), who’s just made a more or less political decision to become a lesbian, and who’s immediately attracted to Goran’s very conventional sister; Lasse (Ola Norell), a wry medical student and Anna’s new ex-husband; Klas (Shanti Roney), a lonely gay man who pines for Lasse; Erik (Olle Sarri), a humorless political radical and member of the Communist Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary League who prefers discussing dense political theory to everything, including sex.

In this world where children seem saner and more responsible than adults, the strait-laced family next door to Together is horrified at these goings on. All except young Fredrik (Henrik Lundstrom), who senses that the newly arrived Eva might be a kind of soul mate.

While all this is going on (and it’s a lot), discarded husband Rolf is increasingly desperate to reconnect with his family. His only friend is an equally at-sea divorced guy named Birger (Sten Ljunggren), who tells him, as if he needed to hear it, that “loneliness is the most awful thing in the world.”

Aside from superb ensemble work from an 18-member cast, “Together’s” sense of human potential is its greatest pleasure. Moodysson treats all his characters well, even when he puts them through terribly bleak moments. While he well knows that this commune is a rather silly place, he still is able to put forward a convincing case for the concept behind it, difficult as it is to put into practice. “The only thing worth anything,” one character says, likely echoing the filmmaker’s thoughts, “is being together.”

MPAA rating: R for nudity/sexuality and language. Times guidelines: a generous amount of nudity and some adult sexual situations.

“Together”

Lisa Lindgren: Elisabeth

Gustaf Hammarsten: Goran

Michael Nyqvist: Rolf

Anja Lundqvist: Lena

Ola Norell: Lasse

Jessica Liedberg: Anna

Shanti Roney: Klas

Olle Sarri: Erik

Released by IFC Films. Director Lukas Moodysson. Producer Lars Jonsson. Screenplay Lukas Moodysson. Cinematographer Ulf Brantas. Editors Michal Leszczylowski, Fredrik Abrahamsen. Costumes Mette Moller. Art director Carl Johan De Geer. Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes.

In selected theaters.