Tommy (Anson Boon) tears through the London nightlife like a rabid dog let loose from its leash. High on life and enough drugs and liquor to down an elephant, the oft-violent, oversexed youth is a menace nobody should want to encounter. Even his friends, and sorta-girflriend, abandon him to stumble around town in a daze…until he suddenly wakes up chained, again like a dog, in a stranger’s basement. The title of Jan Komasa’s film, Good Boy, has a double meaning. It can be an apt description for someone who is basically the opposite of Tommy, or it’s what you say to dog for fetching the newspaper, or taking a poop outside. It can be used to uplift, or to minimize, and Tommy will experience both as part of a twisted attempt at rehabilitation.
Good Boy takes place mostly in a strange, isolated family home led by Chris (Stephen Graham), who seems like a decent enough guy…well, except for the fact he’s got Tommy chained in the basement. Chris’ wife Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough) is sickly and frail, she barely seems to exist at all. Their son Jonathan (Kit Rakusen) has the kind of weird innocence that suggests a dangerously sheltered existence.
They seem nice enough, and their intent is clearly to try and fix Tommy, to cure him of his delinquent behavior which he unleashes on everyone. They force him to watch videos about drunk driving deaths, but most painful of all are the TikTok videos of Tommy’s criminal acts and violent behavior towards others. When Tommy gets out of hand and threatens Kathryn, Chris’ mask slips, and he beats his captive within an inch of his life, screaming “bad boy” to emphasize that, at this stage, Tommy is little more than an animal.
Good Boy would lend itself to gory torture porn horror, but Kosama is more interested in the lasting effects of long-term captivity. Over time, Tommy and his captors grow much closer, and he even begins to be accepted as one of the family. He gives them something that has been missing for a long time. They begin to help him shed that untamed side which has led to so much trouble. He even starts reading To Kill a Mockingbird, but that Jane Austen stuff sucks.
It’s confusing, though, to be so close and yet still be chained around the neck, unable to go home. Tommy tries to make friends with the family’s maid, Rina (Monika Frajczyk), an undocumented immigrant practically bullied into accepting the job. Tommy sees in her a potential ally, maybe a love interest, because they are similarly trapped.
While we learn more about the grief and loss that devastated Chris and Kathryn to the point they’d pull something like this, the real focus is on Tommy. He’s forced to consider whether his old life of running the streets and doing whatever he wants is really worth rediscovering, or does he allow himself to be molded by the same people who kidnapped him? And does anyone from his old life even care that he’s gone? These questions come to a head in the final act, but it can be a slog getting there. For all of its compelling examinations, Good Boy doesn’t pack any surprises and the conclusion is so predictable and neat you want to rap it on the nose with a newspaper.
