Summary
It teases with performative comedy, focusing on the most life-changing global event of recent times, but it doesn’t quite land.
This review of the Netflix film Stuck Together does not contain spoilers.
Unfortunately, I am one of those people that is not ready to watch films centering on the Covid-19 lockdowns. Okay, The Morning Show is lightly brushing over it in the second season, but the story itself is still on-tune with the previous installment. Netflix’s Stuck Together follows quirky residents in an apartment building in Paris during the lockdown and highlights how they had to adjust to life. The issue is, this was the reality for most people around the world. This is not an insightful recap of the unknown.
But putting aside my grievances to opportunistic filmmaking, Stuck Together attempts to make a goofy, heartfelt, and emotional story that entwines comedy in the writing. You have the overly cautious husband with his displeased wife, childhood crushes, the worried partner whose wife is in hospital, and the two social media influencers doing their best to live with each other while keeping their content and relationship alive. The film is designed to make audiences understand how irritating the new lifestyle became and the potential outcomes from such transformative change.
But Stuck Together also delves into the absurd — in the depths of the story is a scientist, desperately trying to find a cure for the virus while attempting to keep the residents updated. This whacky angle does not serve any purpose apart from a lack of uncanniness from the reality of the situation. The film would have benefitted from realism while keeping the comedy tropes implemented. Instead, it teases with performative comedy, focusing on the most life-changing global event of recent times, but it doesn’t quite land.
But there is a sweet message that runs through Stuck Together. While the pandemic unwillingly enclosed us in our homes and brought many frustrations and undesirable tensions, it sends home a message of togetherness. The film can at least be applauded for that even if it is untimely and also not well-delivered. If it were well-delivered, I’d probably have fewer issues with it.
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