Together
United Artists | Release Date: May 30, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
6
Negative:
2

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Together is a likely candidate to become that one foreign-language film that jumps out of the art houses each year to become a mainstream phenomenon. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's hard to watch and listen to Together without, in some sense, having your heart lifted by its music. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A movie with the nerve to end with melodramatic sentiment--and get away with it, because it means it. Expect lots of damp eyes in the audience. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
Isn't an audience that was nurtured on the doomsday screeds of art-house cinema entitled to vacation in the warmth of a superior film about a boy with almost too many people to love? Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverJean Oppenheimer
Viewers with a low tolerance for sentiment may balk, but the emotions are so true and the characters so appealing that the film should completely win you over. Read full review
80
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
A true original, thanks to some memorable characters, an engaging story and a thrilling classical soundtrack. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
To contextualize the story's lack of subtlety, it helps to see these casting choices as ongoing penance for the time when, as a boy, Chen denounced his own father to the Red Guard. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Though moving, Together needed more opera to send us where great music frequently goes -- nearly over the edge. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Together's mix of classical gems and composer Zhao Lin's plaintive score is stirring, soaring stuff. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderTed Shen
Chen tries to generate some suspense, but there's never any doubt which side has to win. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Pays off in surprising ways, when love of music, and fame, plays second fiddle to love of family.
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Together may not be overtly political, but its vision of contemporary Beijing, where brazen, fashion-crazed gold diggers like Lili bait their hooks to snare arrogant, slippery wheeler-dealers who end up playing her for a sucker, has bite. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The film doesn't amount to an emotionally palpable experience. Most of the stops it attempts to pull out are rusty. The movie ends with a gigantic lump in its throat, one that would take a tall glass of Barbara Stanwyck to wash down. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Ray Conlogue
If you're in the mood for tears and triumph, with a dash of exoticism, Together may well be the film for you. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
A high tolerance for syrupy melodrama is required in order to enjoy Together. Read full review
63
PremiereAaron Hillis
It may be a crowd-pleasing escapism, but it's that feel-good shmaltz that ultimately plays the film off-key. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
The result is a sure-fire crowd-pleaser that will strike Chen's admirers as a heartfelt but decidedly minor effort. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyJohn Powers
Its schmaltzy manipulations are pure 1940s Hollywood. Still, if you can get past the corn, the story exerts a not-unsatisfying emotional pull thanks to Yun's soulful gravity and a tenderness that Chen hasn't shown quite so openly since his 1984 debut, "Yellow Earth." Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The performances are all terrific, but Together never jells as a compelling narrative. Read full review
50
Village VoiceDennis Lim
Mawkishly clichéd as it is, Together is an odder hybrid than it first appears -- at once populist and deeply cynical about the price of popularity. Read full review
50
VarietyDerek Elley
The plucky music student who overcomes adversity is a staple subgenre of mainland cinema and, though Chen Kaige directs with greater slickness and more finesse and humor, there's still little to differentiate Together from any other state-studio pic. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Miles away from "Farewell, My Concubine" in form and function, with thinly defined characters and unreflective attitudes about urban values vs. country values, the film would be impossible to identify as Chen's if his name weren't in the opening credits. Read full review
30
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Torpid, syrupy melodrama from the Chinese director of 1993's "Farewell My Concubine." Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Since this is a coming-of-age movie about a poor rural kid who grapples with the big city, it would be nice if its protagonist weren’t such a lummox. Read full review
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