Companion

This review may contain spoilers!

Companion is a sci-fi thriller about a Companion Android called Iris, and how her owner/boyfriend, Josh, sets her up for murder.

I really liked the dark humourous side of Companion, it does this dark comedy quality about what a world with Companion Androids would look like well. One of the better scenes in the film is when Josh first receives Iris. At first glance, the scene packages a lot of exposition at you, but it's really very funny. The transactional nature of this figure who is basically being bought to fill a sexual desire and an emotional hole is both alarming and hysterical. Pair that with the salesperson talking through the 'set-up' process, and the user agreement and speculating on the ways Josh might use Iris is quite fun. I think this quality of the Iris/Josh relationship is the most interesting, how he both owns Iris and relies on her to fulfil him. It is a strange, selfish and narcissistic cycle that builds Josh into an antagonist well. While the film doesn't put a massive lens to it, I was really impressed by the Eli and Patrick romantic subplot. I was so onboard with seeing a true love story genuinely shine through in all of this, and the tragic bend it takes only enhances the greater film.

I really enjoyed the style of this, the very bold and beautiful contemporary style of the piece made it all feel so real while heightening the luxury of the setting. This is a film that captures the violence and gore neatly with these very aesthetic shots you would expect from a domestic thriller. the score is a blend of light and boppy to downright panic-inducing at times, yet the soundtrack really came through that cut to 'Emotion' by Samantha Sang and the Beegees at the end hit home smoothly. 

Jack Quaid, who played Josh, does a steady push into narcissistic antagonist quite well over this; Quaid leans into the nice guy meet cute at first but really drags up this horrible nightmare boyfriend by the very end. Rupert Friend, who played Sergey, is quite an oddball character but a very fun caricature of a Russian business mogul; Friend also lends a quality to Sergey that makes you and the characters wonder if you should fear him.

However, the best performance came from Lukas Gage and Harvey Guillén, who played Patrick and Eli respectively. This film starts with our classic 'band of friends' at the trusty lakeside house. But there are numerous hints this isn't the typical gathering we might expect. Yet, while that drama plays out in the foreground my eyes kept getting diverted to subjects held more in the back. Guillén and Gage craft this immediate chemistry, their roles are quite cute together and I was pulled in by their bond steadily. It is clear Guillén is here as a comedic tour de force. His strong reaction to the murder plot is really funny and he just seems to dance circles around the rest of the cast when it comes to delivering the funniest line. Yet, he is evidently more than this. The scene in which Guillén and Gage declare their love for one another and Gage's role declares that he knows he is an android is just the single best moment of the film. It felt true, there was so much passion in it and it suddenly drove some very real stakes into the film that the audience cared about. As the film goes along Gage really showcases he can bounce between being the loving and affectionate boyfriend and the cold android. Gage's final scene in which he realises his grief hits you like a punch and marks this duo performance as the reason to watch.

 In a world post M3gan we have had a few of these AI/android horror stories now. These repetitive movies about the idea of a family member being replaced by a machine, or an AI house or whatever other technological nefarious plot cranks out a script. This is just another one of many girlfriend/wife is actually an android type films and all the same notes are hit. That is ultimately what is so disappointing about Companion. It's just another tech scare film paired with the obvious abusive relationship theme, which might have done well as a subtle vehicle. But the main plot around Josh being a bad boyfriend who mistreats Iris gets simpler and simpler until they're shouting simplistic dialogue while punching one another in the climactic scene. It's really hard to stand apart in a crowd, but in a film that has a 'make your robot girlfriend smarter or dumber' slider I just don't think that happens. The first act I found to be a very hard sell, having all of these people congregate at a Russian business mogul's lake house because he is sleeping with one of the party is threadbare. The fact this threadbare connection pushed us into the kookiest murder/robbery story makes the whole film feel like it's pulling at straws to stay together at times. This film is riddled with exposition about how to stop the androids and how they work, it's even exposition delivered to nearly every character in the film. The fact there are multiple times where this movie could end if it coloured within its own lines made this a hard film to suspend belief within. Iris could have been reset and destroyed a couple of times and the fact this doesn't happen feels like a flaw in how the script was considered.

The editing in this film is atrocious. As a thriller, it should have an excellent sense of timing, but it does gravitate towards slowness. I never felt any urgency because scenes were quite happy to unfold at a snail's pace. 

Sophie Thatcher, who played Iris, really lets the film down in a big way for me; Thatcher just plays her part like a human portraying a machine and it becomes hard to actually buy into the core concept of the film. Megan Suri, who played Kat, is content being little more than the token 'mean' character; Suri tosses out a couple of brutal lines but seems bored often.

An uninspired leading performance and a plot riddled with holes make for a scary artificial intelligence misstep. I would give Companion a 5.5/10.