Drew Hancock, “Companion” (2015)
A low-budget sci-fi thriller film with a young cast and a deceptively simple, straightforward plot becomes a magnet for commentary on aspects of contemporary Western society – its misogyny towards women, especially women from the lower, serving classes, expressed in disdain, control and abuse; its obsession with commodifying love relationships for profit; its values of self-interest and material greed that encourage people to manipulate, abuse and even murder others – in darkly comic and satirical style. What appears uncomplicated and banal on the surface in Drew Hancock’s debut directing feature “Companion” is actually far, far different once the surface sheen is removed. Iris (Sophie Thatcher), head over heels in love with Josh (Jack Quaid) agrees to accompany him on a weekend stay with friends Kat (Megan Suri) and Sergei (Rupert Friend) at Sergei’s country lake house. There, they meet two other friends, Eli (Harvey Guillén) and his boyfriend Patrick (Lucas Gage). The friends are rather cool towards Iris, who is bothered by their treatment of her.
The next day, Iris goes down to sunbake at the edge of the lake and meets Sergei there, who attempts to rape her. Iris resists and ends up killing Sergei. Blood-soaked, she runs back to the lake house where her presence sets off a series of actions that reveal the real reason why Josh brought her to the lake house initially: she is a companion robot whose settings have been changed by Josh to increase her aggression level and enable her to murder Sergei, so that Josh and Kat can steal and make off with $12 million of Sergei’s money. Eli and Patrick were invited to the house to provide cover.
Throughout the film, Iris attempts to escape Josh, often without much success, until after much bloodshed and killing, Josh resets Iris’s settings on his phone, turning her into a dumb automaton and forcing her to burn her hand over a candle and shoot herself in the head. Workers from Empathix, the company that manufactured Iris and Patrick, take Iris away and reboot her in their van. Josh sends Patrick, reprogammed by Josh into a killing machine, after the workers to bring back Iris. Patrick takes out one worker and is about to kill the other when Iris, fully rebooted, reminds Patrick of his former love Eli. Reminded of his robot status and Eli, Patrick commits suicide. Iris then returns to the lake house to confront Josh.
Although the film deals with its many themes in a fleeting, often superficial manner, all these themes coalesce into a narrative of self-discovery and self-awareness that ultimately lead to freedom and being in charge of one’s own destiny. It’s a pity that to achieve that transformation, the protagonist must undergo very harrowing experiences that very nearly result in her death and must also commit murder. Through this narrative, the film comments on men with self-esteem issues who need to visit prostitutes, buy blow-up dolls or hire AI robots to satisfy their need for dominance and control over women. Woven into this narrative is the philosophical question, broached by earlier films like “Blade Runner” and “Ex_Machina”, of whether humanoid robots or their AI equivalents, once they become operational, can be considered sentient and are entitled to the same rights and privileges as human beings. “Companion” makes a good case that many humans, in lacking empathy for their fellow biped beings, themselves might be no better than robots programmed to be mere automatons.
The film relies heavily on the slim shoulders of Sophie Thatcher who successfully conveys Iris’s apparent fragility and sweet nature along with a steely determination to be her own person in spite of her programming. Quaid is suitably creepy as the boyfriend who turns out sociopathic and the other actors, Gage especially, provide good support. A brisk pace and just enough character development to flesh out the plot and sketch out its themes make “Companion” an enjoyable trip, though there is much distressing violence in the film’s later moments.