HEEL: 3 STARS. “A suburban riff on ‘A Clockwork Orange’ with great performances.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Heel,” a new psychological thriller now on VOD and Digital, a suburban couple inflect their own brand of social rehabilitation on a 19-year-old criminal.CAST: Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Anson Boon, Kit Rakusen. Directed by Jan Komasa.
REVIEW: A suburban riff on “A Clockwork Orange,” “Heel” (formerly known as “Good Boy” in the UK) is a darkly comedic morality play that starts strong but doesn’t stick the landing.
When we first meet Tommy (Anson Boon) he’s a violent 19-year-old who does drugs, gets into fights and posts about it on Instagram. One drunken night he gets separated from his friends and is abducted, only find himself chained to a wall like a dog in a dingy basement.
His captors, married couple Chris (Stephen Graham) and Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough) and their cute 10-year-old son, Jonathan (Kit Rakusen), are not quite what you might expect from kidnappers. Kathryn is standoffish, but Chris is stern but kind (mostly) presence who lectures Tommy on how to lead a better life, when he isn’t forcing his unwilling guest to watch educational videos or read novels. “We treat each other with respect in this house,” Chris tells him.
Meanwhile, Chris and Kathryn hire a Rina Macedonian housekeeper whose presence brings some unwanted attention to the house.
This story of rehabilitation—of attempting to bring Tommy to heel, so to speak—is an odd duck, one that surprises and confounds in equal measure. The unpredictable story offers no motive for Chris and Kathryn’s treatment of Tommy, which blunts whatever social commentary might have been lurking on the story’s dark corners.
Still, rock solid performances from Graham, Riseborough and particularly Boon, who effectively channels anger and anxiety, keep the stakes high enough to maintain interest.
