As the psychological thriller Heel opens, we see the feral teenage Tommy (Anson Boon) partying insatiably and behaving despicably. He is a bully, a vandal, and a hedonist who thinks of no one but himself. If he had any aspiration or cultural curiosity, he might see himself as the Malcom McDowell character in A Clockwork Orange. Addled by drugs and booze, he staggers off to pass out.
Tommy regains consciousness, and finds himself wearing a steel collar on his neck, chained to the wall of a dungeon-like basement. He doesn’t know where he is, but it’s in an isolated house in the remote English countryside. The home belongs to Chris (Stephen Graham) and Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough), who have KIDNAPPED Tommy with the intention of turning him into a good boy, a kid who is civil, respectful, considerate and responsible. Chris and Kathryn have a 10-year-old son Jonathan (Kit Rakusen), who is almost sickeningly obedient.
Yes, this is all bizarre. It is not okay to hold someone against their will, literally chained to the wall, even if Chris and Kathryn act like it’s the most normal and benevolent behavior. Even Tommy has enough awareness to label his situation a “Guantanamo”.
Chris and Kathryn hire a young, undocumented Macedonian woman, Rina (Monika Frajczyk), as a housekeeper. The family is so twisted, and Tommy is so vile, that Rina’s point of view validates the audience’ perspective.
What Chris and Kathryn are doing is inhumane, illegal and very, very creepy. Corporal punishment does work to modify behavior in the short term, that’s not the reason that civilized society doesn’t use it anymore. Of course, this very extreme situation is used to explore just what children need from their parents. Kids do need stability, consistency, discipline, attention and unconditional love, and Chris and Kathryn get that much right.
As unhinged as Chris and Kathryn are, they DO really care about Tommy, which drives a surprise ending.
I love Stephen Graham as an actor. His characters can be very menacing and brutish. Here, his Chris acts like he’s naturally a milquetoast, but one very determined to stay on mission; he doesn’t LIKE using an electric prod, but if he has to…
Andrea Riseborough, another actor who is always superb, is wonderful in Heel as a woman who seems at first to live in a stupor of grief, but whose agency is eventually revealed.
The folks responsible for this story, in all its bracing originality, are Polish director Jan Komasa and co-writers Barto Bartosik (his first screenplay) and Naqqash Khalid (his second). Let’s order up some more movies from these guys!
Heel was originally titled Good Boy (which would have been a much better title IMO), but it was changed to avoid confusion with another film (the horror picture with the dog’s POV).
Heel is wild, unsettling and very entertaining. Heel is streaming on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.