Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Jan Komasa
Starring: Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Anson Boon, Kit Rakusen, Monika Frajczyk
Having recently made his English language debut with the US-set political thriller Anniversary, Polish director Jan Komasa now finds himself working in England, as so many of his filmmaking compatriots have. Bartek Bartosik's script for The Good Boy (released in North America as "Heel") was originally set in Warsaw, but with some additional writing from In Camera director Naqqash Khalid it has now been relocated to Yorkshire.
It's there that we meet Rina (Monika Frajczyk), a Macedonian immigrant who has recently escaped a trafficking gang and overstayed her visa. Desperate for clandestine employment, Rina agrees to become the housekeeper for Chris (Stephen Graham) and Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough), who live in a secluded home in the countryside with their young son Jonathan (Kit Rakusen). The house has another resident in Tommy (Anson Boon), a teenage thug Chris abducted from the street and now keeps chained in the basement. Rina agrees to keep quiet and get on with her job.
It seems initially that Rina is to serve as the audience surrogate, the person brought into this madhouse who must wrestle with her conscience. But Rina is quickly sidelined, ultimately existing only for the convenience of a certain plot point later on. Instead The Good Boy focusses on the unconventional family dynamic that develops between Tommy and his captors. It falls somewhere between William Wyler's adaptation of John Fowles' The Collector and Yorgos Lanthimos's Dogtooth. It is also reminiscent of those scuzzy '70s British thrillers (Revenge, House of Whipcord et al) in which conservative suburban couples kidnap those they consider of low moral fibre.
That '70s influence extends to the cheesy "sweded" recreations of classic British Public Information Films that Chris makes for Tommy's viewing pleasure. Graham channel's Richard Attenborough's soft-spoken serial killer from 10 Rillington Place and wears the sort of bad toupee and cardigan combos that were common among middle class British males five decades ago. There is a sense that Chris and Kathryn are clinging onto an outdated idea of Englishness, but the film doesn't have any clear interest in making any political points. At first their idea of punishing troublemakers with imprisonment might mark Chris and Kathryn as reactionary conservatives, but they have a classically liberal belief that Tommy can be rehabilitated through education.
As the narrative progresses, the scenario grows increasingly absurd. Chris and Kathryn begin to treat Tommy as though he were their son, and there are hints that they have previously lost a boy of their own, or perhaps they are merely pining for a previous abductee who either perished or escaped their clutches. Using chloroform, they take Tommy on picnics to secluded fields where they attempt to imitate their notions of a normal family excursion. To allow Tommy more access around the home, Chris rigs up an elaborate pulley system controlled by a series of locks. Tommy has freedom somewhat, but he must remain chained like a dog.
The trouble with The Good Boy's setup is that the only characters we sympathise with are Jonathan and Rina, but the film isn't constructed in a way that centres either. It is never even suggested that either Jonathan or Rina might try to make an escape, rather it's Tommy who slyly plans his breakout; but Tommy is so cartoonishly loathsome that we simply don't care about his plight.
The Good Boy's narrative is so inert that it's only the stellar performances that keep us engaged. Graham and Riseborough are unsurprisingly impressive, playing their roles with a mix of menace and nervousness, while Boon's bad boy charm goes a long way to convincing us of how Tommy had managed to get way with being awful for so long. But it's young Rakusen who delivers the best work of all here, finding ways to tell us so much that isn't in the script through his performance. Appearing as though he's trying desperately to hold back tears throughout, Rakusen plays Jonathan as a boy who knows his parents are wackos but is desperately attempting to convince himself that everything is normal. Had The Good Boy made Jonathan the centre of its unfocussed plot it may have made for a more engaging experience.
The Good Boy is in UK/ROI cinemas from March 20th.
