COMPANION - Mark Reviews Movies

Companion, Warner Bros. Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 30, 2025

Not so hidden within the entertaining thriller Companion is a fable about control. Actually, it's tough to call writer/director Drew Hancock's debut feature a fable after a certain point, because it's underlying ideas about co-dependence, manipulation, and abuse in a romantic relationship come right up to the front by the third act. It's on the nose, to be sure, but sometimes, some things need to be stated plainly, lest anyone miss or mistake the point.

Here, the point revolves around two familiar but fascinating characters. One is Josh (Jack Quaid), who seems like a nice guy and at least has a girlfriend, as well as some apparently loyal friends, to further suggest that's the case. The girlfriend is Iris (Sophie Thatcher), who's smart and pretty and just a bit shy and insecure. She's deeply in love in Josh—a fact she makes clear in about every other thought she expresses.

Something's off here, but maybe, that inkling of a notion comes from the prologue, which shows how Josh and Iris meet at a grocery store in a scene that would fit perfectly in a cheesy romantic comedy. Iris explains how there were two times when everything drab and dreary about life faded. The first was when she met Josh, as he stared at her in the store and accidentally knocked down all the oranges on display. The second was—or, for us, will be, since this is Iris in the narrative's future talking—when she killed him.

There are two stories happening here. On the surface, it's a thriller about murder and greed and millions of dollars in cash. That plot is fun and occasionally surprising, not only because it offers some twists along the way, but also because it does take its characters into account. There's a major complicating factor, by the way, to at least one of those characters, and it gets at why the film's second story might be more engaging than the clever plotting of the thriller.

After seeing how Josh and Iris met, we catch up with them on their way to a getaway vacation at a remote cabin in the forest. They're staying with Josh's friends Kat (Megan Suri) and Eli (Harvey Guillén), as well as the pals' respective partners Sergey (Rupert Friend), a wealthy Russian who owns the cabin, and Patrick (Lukas Gage). For her part, Iris is just eager to please and be accepted by Josh's friends—especially Kat, who doesn't like her in the slightest.

There are several developments that won't be mentioned here, because the plotting stands on its own but is surely more fun to be discovered along the way. Besides that, what's more intriguing is what we learn about Iris just at the end of the first act. She's not human.

No, Iris is an android—a companion or, as Josh tries to rationalize, an "emotional-support" robot. Such models are programmed to imprint on their owner or renter and play the role of a romantic partner. It explains a lot about Iris up until that point in the story—her casual obsession with Josh, the way she frames everything about herself and her existence within the context of her relationship with him, the very make-up of her personality.

It also says a lot about Josh, who does treat Iris more like a thing on certain occasions (There's the sex, for one thing, but he also gets a laugh from asking her what the weather is). On a deeper level, though, everything about Iris' behavior, thinking, and personality points to Josh's own behavior, thinking, and personality. Here's a guy who wants control over another person, and what better way to exert such control than over an android that is programmed to only consider him? That's not even taking into account that Josh can determine just about every detail of Iris' appearance, disposition, and even intelligence (The ways in which Iris flips those mechanics, including a very funny scene involving her preset language, are quite satisfying).

We get to learn a lot about Josh by the way he treats Iris, both before and after the turn that sets a whole scheme involving murder and those millions in motion. Iris, who gains some level of self-awareness and control over herself once that plot gets going, is even more intriguing. Sure, many of her actions and much of her thinking suddenly becomes about trying to escape Josh, the cabin, and the plan in which she has been an unwitting pawn. Even that feels more aligned with understanding this character, her potential for some kind of independence, and just how deeply engrained that foundational programming is for her. If she's only programmed to exist for this guy, can she ever truly escape that?

The plot unfolds, with some unexpected revelations as the perpetrators of the scheme hunt Iris, but Hancock never loses focus on our android protagonist and how her relationship with Josh is at the heart of this story. Initially, Companion serves as an allegory for a toxic and even abusive relationship, and while it eventually does put those ideas at the forefront, that's far from a flaw or an overreach on Hancock's part. The film understands and develops these characters and this twisted bond to such an extent that the shift feels earned, right, and, perhaps, necessary. It's a clever thriller, yes, but a smarter fable that's wise enough to treat its themes seriously and present them directly.

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