Companion

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★

Rated: TBA

Directed by: Drew Hancock

Written by: Drew Hancock

Produced by: Zach Cregger, Raphael Margules, J. D. Lifshitz, Roy Lee

Starring: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén and Rupert Friend.

‘Smile.  Act happy.’

Josh (Jack Quaid) and Iris (Sophie Thatcher) are the perfect couple.

They meet in a grocery store where Josh fumbles his way into Irises heart.

It’s a sweet, meet cute.

‘I just want you to be happy, Josh,’ Iris tells him.

Then the relationship begins to fray.

The love a little needy.

Josh, despondent to Irises attention.

When Josh and Iris drive out to an isolated lake house to spend time with Josh’s friends, Cat (Megan Suri) and her rich Russian boyfriend, Sergey (Rupert Friend) and Eli (Harvey Guillen) with partner Patrick (Lukas Gage), Iris is afraid she’ll embarrass Josh.

Josh tells her to smile, act happy.

She does her best.

The innocent Iris who couldn’t lie, even if she wanted to, is someone to feel sorry for.

Until the doll made to serve turns up covered in someone else’s blood.

There’s twists and turns in Companion, with moments of violence amongst the tongue and cheek; comments like, ‘I know it must be a lot to process.’

Companion feels a little like a Barbie version of, Ex Machina with the subtitles of manipulation replaced with overtones of domestic violence.

Yet the tone of the film is light, holding back on the ridiculous so it’s a watchable film but made more for entertainment than depth.

Or if there was depth, it wasn’t a message that resonated.  Maybe something like, Beware of treating your partner like a doll because they might grow a brain and turn on you.

So, I guess there’s something in that.