The Good Boy review: Stephen Graham shines in twisted thriller
Stephen Graham has been on a major run of projects for the past few years and shows no sign of slowing down. His latest film, The Good Boy, also known as Heel in the US, proves that there’s nothing he can’t do!
Jan Komasa‘s black comedy thriller follows Tommy (Anson Boon), a menace to society and an aggressive, coked-up lad. One night after a bender, he is abducted from the street. He wakes up in the basement of a remote home in Yorkshire with a collar around his neck connected to a chain attached to the ceiling. Chris (Graham) and his wife Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough) hold him captive and attempt to rehabilitate him by playing calming music, giving him books and making him watch videos of himself beating people up, bullying, drink-driving and more.
We are introduced to the unconventional (to say the least) arrangement through the eyes of Rina (Monika Frajczyk), an immigrant looking for work as a cleaner. The twisted, unhinged setup and weird family dynamic do a lot of the heavy lifting, but the characters help keep it interesting. Chris and Kathryn actually seem quite normal, but they are clearly broken and very vulnerable, and have a warped idea of rehabilitation. Tommy is an awful human who is unsurprisingly very angry at first, but he chills out slowly over the course of the film, especially when they bring him into the main house.
The film should have been a tight 90 minutes rather than 110 minutes, as the novelty eventually wears off and the concept runs out of steam. Also, there are hints about what happened to the family before Tommy’s arrival but it’s never explicitly explained, which is a shame, as I would have liked more of their history. But I cannot fault the performances. Graham shows off his impressive rage as a man who seems quite nice on the surface, but then he dishes out brutal punishments. There is clearly a lot going on with Chris. Kathryn is insular and grieving, but she comes out of her shell having Tommy as her new project. Meanwhile, Boon slowly but surely makes Tommy less and less of a brute as the film goes along.
The Good Boy has a terrifically dark and unusual concept and it’s a delight to see Graham and Riseborough as these twisted psychopaths. However, it’s a bit too long and the ending is a questionable choice.
In cinemas from Friday 20th March