Film Review - Companion

Drew Hancock's sci-fi-thriller-horror-satire features a fine lead in Sophie Thatcher, but don't let the trailer spoil it for you

Credit: Warner Brothers

I’m not the first reviewer to note that the trailer for this film gives too much away. Like the critic in question (Mark Kermode), I am also grateful I did not have writer-director Drew Hancock’s Companion spoiled for me. I can only second his urging that if you are going to catch this sci-fi-thriller-horror-satire gem, if at all possible, do so without having seen the trailer. In fact, I’d also recommend avoiding online spoilers, especially on social media (I’d recommend avoiding the latter in any case, just for superior quality of life).

Staying away from spoilers, I’ll provide only the briefest of plot teasers. Somewhere in the near future, a young woman called Iris (Sophie Thatcher, recently seen in last year’s cracking Heretic) ponders the moment she met Josh (Jack Quaid) in a supermarket. Love at first sight, apparently. Yet, in the opening line of the voiceover, Iris also mentions a darker event she remembers, and it is this event that intrigues the viewer. At any rate, the young couple seem happy, and we pick up with them as they head to a private mansion in the woods by a lake owned by an acquaintance called Sergey (Rupert Friend). Iris is nervous that she won’t be liked by Josh’s friends, pointing out in particular that Kat (Megan Suri) hates her. Josh reassures Iris that Kat hates everyone.

But once inside, Iris is treated rather oddly by the others, including gay couple Patrick (Lukas Gage) and Eli (Javier Guillén). As she suspected, Iris is particularly dismissed by Kat, and even by Josh, who doesn’t seem like a particularly considerate boyfriend (or lover, for that matter). Meanwhile, the leering Sergei is clearly after Iris for himself, and events conspire in a way that leaves them alone together.

To reveal anything else, to my mind, is to venture into spoiler territory. But even if the first major twist is spoiled for you (as per the trailer), don’t worry too much. There are more twists to come, constantly keeping the viewer on their toes. Many of the absurd escalations are laced with a sharp streak of satire and black comedy, and the film isn’t boring for a second. It perhaps goes a twist too far, but it hardly matters.

Companion isn’t aiming particularly high, but amid its entertaining Ira Levin-esque hokum, the film at least has a modicum of incisive comment on zeitgeist concerns. Again, navigating spoilers with the skill of Charles Blondin riding a bicycle over Niagara Falls, these include potential dangers of futuristic technology. More pertinently, the film chews over power dynamics in relationships, the dark outlets that could ensue for males who believe the so-called dating game is rigged against them, and, in general, the transactional nature of many modern relationships. Or so I’m reliably informed by various young people, who tell me hair-clutching tales of despair about swipey-appy nonsense. Thank God I met my wife back in the Stone Age before any such lunacy came into being. But I digress.

The trouble with reviewing a film with MI6 levels of top secrecy is I can’t say more without transgressing the spoiler red line. I will add Thatcher is terrific, and the rest of the cast provides good support (especially Lukas Gage). It’s sharply observed, well-directed, and, all things considered, an above-average bit of diverting genre entertainment. Although hardly groundbreaking (other sci-fi stories have delved into similar subject matter), this still holds its own. In short, if Companion sounds like your cup of tea, do take a look. You could certainly do a lot worse.

(Originally published at Medium.)

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