Debuting at TIFF when it was titled Good Boy, Jan Komasa’s thriller Heel (title changed likely to avoid confusion with the canine horror film) is a twisted film where a seemingly normal married couple kidnap a local hooligan and treat him like a dog. Why? To teach the young ruffian a lesson on obedience, of course.
Heel stars Stephen Graham, who is red-hot after winning an Emmy and Golden Globe for his performance in Adolescence. Also in the cast is Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough as the sickly family matriarch and Kit Rakusen as the son, whose innocence is strangely off-putting.
The scene-stealer for me was Anson Boon as Tommy, the street tough who must decide whether to re-embrace his wild lifestyle, or to allow these strangers to mold him into someone new.
Here’s the synopsis: A twisted thriller that follows 19-year-old hooligan Tommy (Anson Boon), who revels in a life of drugs, parties, and violence. One night, on a bender with his reckless friends, he becomes separated from the group and is abducted by an unknown figure (Stephen Graham). Though he is no stranger to inflicting violence, he is enraged and horrified when he wakes to find himself chained in the basement of the isolated suburban family home of Chris (Graham), his wife Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough), and their young son Jonathan (Kit Rakusen). The family sets out to reform Tommy’s unruly behavior, forcing him to comply with their relentless mind games or seek escape at any cost.
Heel opens in theaters and VOD on March 6th from Magnolia Pictures and Magnet Releasing. You can check out my early review here.
