Companion is a dish best-served cold. That’s the best way I can describe my increasingly uncertain relationship with this film in the days following my first watch. Marketed as “a new kind of love story,” I was one of the lucky few who went into Companion with little to no knowledge of its plot beyond the retro, bubblegum pink promos all over my feed. I’m a total sucker for an aesthetically pleasing yet equally violent explosion of a sci-fi thriller, so the moment I laid eyes on Sophie Thatcher’s iconic bangs framing robotic white-out eyes, I knew Companion was a mandatory watch. That being said, there are some major spoilers in this review. Know that you have been warned.
If you’re like me and are equally scarred by years of play-by-play film analysis in English classes, you’ll get what I mean when I say that I’m eternally plagued by urges to pause any movie I’m watching to pick apart each scene. Whether it be framing, lighting, color palettes or dialogue, I will never be freed (nor am I sure I want to be freed) from the shackles of aggressive cinematic close reading. Companion happens to be the perfect film to watch if you’re looking to overanalyze a hilariously violent, 90-minute thriller jam-packed with social commentary. However, before I took the time to rewatch specific scenes and peel back the layers of what I had just watched, Companion fell completely flat for me at first.
Despite going in blind, oversaturated dialogue quickly betrayed the film’s central twist: Iris (Sophie Thatcher), the loving girlfriend of Josh (Jack Quaid), is a robot. More specifically, she’s advertised as a Companion by her manufacturers, with her most predominant attributes being her sex appeal and unyielding devotion to her owner. The film dives head-first into what becomes an exhausting trend of fast-paced twists and turns, whipping past a rom-com style meet-cute between Iris and Josh and straight to the couple standing at the doorstep of a luxe, lakeside estate. We soon find out that the pair is one of three on a weekend getaway, accompanied by Sergey (Rupert Friend) and his mistress, Kat (Megan Suri), as well as Eli (Harvey Guillén) and his boyfriend, Patrick (Lukas Gage). Without much warning, or frankly, any time for the audience to acquaint themselves with the characters at play, Sergey makes equally rapid and unwanted sexual advances at Iris. A mere twenty-three minutes into the film, the alleged Russian mobster meets the first of many bloody fates when Iris stabs him in the neck with a switchblade. Drenched in a Carrie-style amount of blood, she rushes to tell the others about her assault and Sergey’s death, only to be met by a single deft command from Josh, “Iris go to sleep.” Moments after waking up and finding herself tied to a chair, Iris is faced with the cold reality of her mechanical existence and Josh’s unsurprising villainy, both of which could have been drawn out and revealed later on in the film for an effective punch.
As subplots with twists large and small dutifully tie their loose ends to the apex of Companion, Iris' desperate attempts to escape the lake house guests and surrounding forest terrain make for an entertaining watch. Though impressed by its stunning visuals, quick wit and perfectly timed gore, I can’t help but feel that Companion struggles to stay afloat with respect to the predictability of its plot. After getting over the initial hump of Iris discovering that she’s a sexbot, it’s a little too easy to piece together a fair few of the twists that lie ahead. Not to mention, the relationship between Eli and his own Companion, Patrick, is one that I would have preferred director Drew Hancock to explore more deeply rather than relying on played-out tropes to propel the plot forward. As much as I enjoyed Companion for its satire and would generally recommend it to anyone looking for a good dose of sci-fi entertainment, the film ultimately falls in line with similarly techno-themed media; Don't Worry Darling in particular comes to mind.
As I’ve continued to wrestle with my opinions of Companion and the Black Mirror rabbit hole it’s sent me down, I’ve started to appreciate Hancock’s no-nonsense style and the undeniably fantastic premise of the film’s plot line. Without it, I doubt that Companion would be able to get away with the multitude of genres it covers while keeping the audience laughing throughout. Like I said, Companion is a dish best served cold. While it might not seem too groundbreaking at first, let the image of a blood-soaked Sophie Thatcher hang out in your head for a couple days… you won’t be able to get it out.
Charlotte Feehan is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at cgf47@cornell.edu.
