Companion Review
A fun, messy, and stylish sci-fi thriller that struggles to decide whether it wants to be serious, unserious, or something in between.
Companion tries to cross the line between fun and serious far too often.
In the beginning, the movie seems to intentionally make most of its characters feel one-dimensional — all except the robot. It also includes these little suspenseful shots, like the darkness outside the secluded cabin while all the friends are dancing together, that hint at something more sinister beneath the surface. Nonetheless, it is a fun ride, carried by excellent actors playing inside the boxes the writers have etched for them.
You see glimpses of Sophie Thatcher’s brilliance and robotic aura throughout the film. She is both off-putting and utterly mesmerizing. One must also feel for Jack Quaid, who so often plays the innocent buffoon, but he does a great job with the lines, expressions, and awkward charm the role demands. The rest of the cast does a solid job too, but I felt the entire time as if something was missing.
Whether that missing piece was a truly shocking moment before the climax, or a broader statement about society hiding in the sea of opportunity the premise provides — the movie is literally about people creating robots for their own pleasure — Companion never fully decides what it wants to say. It dances back and forth between serious and unserious.
The plot twists are excellent in isolation, but collectively they make the story feel disjointed and outrageously unrealistic. Yes, I see the hypocrisy of calling a movie about AI robots unrealistic, especially when we do not seem all that far off from it in the real world. Still, the issue is not the concept itself. The issue is that the movie’s tone keeps pulling itself in different directions.
All in all, Companion feels kiddy and unserious, but also fun and rambunctious. I would recommend it if you are bored and want something entertaining to throw on, or if you enjoy sporadic stories with jumbled but interesting plots. It is not something to be appreciated by the harshest critics or by those who mostly enjoy the classics.
It is definitely an acquired taste. Stylistically, it reminds me of Send Help, although the humor in the latter made that film far more entertaining. Maybe that is what Companion was missing: a good laugh inside a very serious plot that decided to be unserious yet gory.
If you have been wanting to see it, go watch it.
If you have not heard of it and sci-fi does not intrigue you, do not.