Be careful what you wish for. That is one of the takeaways from the psychological thriller Companion.
It is a decidedly awkward first meeting at the supermarket for Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid), but their connection is immediate.
Iris falls hard for Josh and they become a couple.
Sometime later, they take a trip to visit Josh’s friends in a beautiful home in remote bushland by the sea.
Iris is nervous about saying and doing the wrong things around Josh’s mates, but he assures her all will be fine.
Iris is particularly concerned about a female friend of Josh, Kat (Megan Suri), who Iris says doesn’t like her.
The luxurious house turns out to be that of Kat’s Russian gangster boyfriend Sergey (Rupert Friend).
Also present is gay couple Eli (Harvey Guillen) and Patrick (Lukas Gage). Like Iris and Josh, they were besotted when their eyes first met in rather absurd circumstances.
All seems in order until Sergey overreaches – badly.
Thereafter, there will be hell to pay.
When reflecting on the film, the expression “first impressions can be misleading” immediately comes to mind.
Not to put too fine a point on it, blood will be spilt … more than once.
The title comes from what we are dealing with here, namely lifelike companion robots.
Companion is a guilty pleasure. I enjoyed the wild ride, which became more intense and farfetched as it progressed.
A golden rule of robotics in the movie is that humanoids can’t lie.
Dare I say, a brave new world awaits.
Writer and director Drew Hancock, who cut his teeth on TV, clearly has a vivid imagination.
An advantage of the script is that you never know where the narrative is heading.
There are shocks and surprises aplenty.
Thatcher transitions nicely from needy and compliant to resourceful and pragmatic.
Quaid shows Josh’s ugly side, while Friend invokes fear as Sergey.
Gage is polished as Patrick and Guillen playful as Eli.
I also appreciated Marc Menchaca’s role as a highway cop.
While the dangers of AI and robots taking over are apparent in Companion, what is also on show here is greed.
And I’m here to tell you that despite Gordon Gekko’s creed in Wall Street (1987) “greed ain’t good”.
Still there is macabre fun to be had in Companion.
Rated MA, it scores a 7½ out of 10.
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