HEEL Review: Empathy Is Tested in Uncomfortable Study of Redemption

Many films daringly opt to make their lead characters somewhat unlikable, risking the audience’s willingness to empathize with them and invest in their journey, but few films in recent memory feature a protagonist as detestable as Heel. 

 

The new psychological thriller from Academy Award nominated director Jan Komasa follows 19-year-old hooligan Tommy (Anson Boon), who overindulges in a life of drugs, parties, sex, infidelity, harassment, and violence.

 

While stumbling home alone from a bender, Tommy is abducted and wakes up chained in the basement of the isolated country home of Chris (Golden Globe winner Stephen Graham), his wife Kathryn (Academy Award nominee Andrea Riseborough), and their son Jonathan (Kit Rakusen). Together, Chris and Kathryn attempt to reform the morally reprehensible Tommy through a series of twisted mind games and bizarre behaviors.

 

In observing the depraved situation of a distinctly dislikable man kidnapped and tortured (both psychologically and physically) by a fairly unsettling and dislikable other man, Heel serves as a complex exercise in empathy. Komasa doesn’t give audiences a lead worthy of empathy to latch onto, in turn creating a purposefully unpleasant viewing experience.

 

The kidnapped hooligan Tommy is introduced as a brazen, overconfident, and disruptive member of society. He cheats on his girlfriend, punches a bodyguard, and is later seen breaking a young boy’s phone and burning a cigarette into the boy’s cheek.

 

Stephen Graham’s Chris, meanwhile, is the antithetical fold to Tommy -- he’s composed (meticulously placing a toupee on his head each morning), polite (perhaps overly so), and yet unnerving, albeit in a different way than Tommy. Throughout the film, Komasa toys with audiences’ investment in these two opposing forces. Just when your heart begins to break for the mistreatment Tommy suffers, a video from social media shows him commit an inexcusably abhorrent act, causing one to better understand and even empathize with Chris’ perspective and decisions.

 

With an oversized runtime of 110 minutes, Heel drags in a slow and rather repetitive first half. After the initial set-up, there is little substantial movement in the narrative as each scene unfolds rather similarly.

 

The chained-up Tommy shouts profanities to Chris and resists his maltreatment, while Chris finds ways to discipline Tommy in an effort to correct his unruly behavior. It doesn’t take long to notice the unchanging scene structure, which, while immersing the viewer in the tortuous monotony of Tommy by having us experience (albeit vicariously) what he experiences, quickly grows tired. 

 

As the film progresses beyond a repetitive first half, things become more interesting. Inch by inch, the audience becomes privy to the minute ways in which Tommy is finally reflecting on his behaviors and, perhaps, actually changing.

 

Anson Boon delivers a stunning breakout performance here that the entire film hinges on. Boon, who previously had roles in Crawl and 1917, deftly conveys the subtle transformations in Tommy’s psyche, while intelligently keeping just enough distance between his character and the audience to raise questions as to whether Tommy’s evolution is genuine or feigned. 

 

Boon’s counterpart Stephen Graham is equally impressive in the film. Graham, fresh off Golden Globe and Emmy wins for his standout performance in Adolescence, creates a fascinating and complex antagonist out of Chris. Traditionally, in a movie like this, Chris would be an easy target for audiences to root against, but Graham plays the character with such nuance and underlying pain that he elicits empathy even as his actions run counter to our moral compasses. Like Boon, Graham brilliantly portrays the steady, organic evolution of his character and ensures that the changes to his behaviors and motivations never feel inauthentic or forced.

 

With two superb performances at its core, Heel remains remarkably unpredictable as the story progresses. The subtleties of Boon’s performance mask Tommy’s inner-workings to a degree and, in turn, imbue the film with a mystery as to how this situation, surely headed toward total calamity, will unfold. Is Tommy developing some kind of Stockholm Syndrome? Is he faking his reformation as a means to escape? Komasa and screenwriters Bartek Bartosik and Naqqash Khalid do well to keep the answers to these concealed and leave the viewer contemplating what’s going to happen next.

 

A rare misstep for the filmmakers, however, is their handling of a side character and subplot named Rina. Following Tommy’s abduction, the entry point into the story is through the eyes of Rina (Monika Frajczyk), a young woman who has migrated from Eastern Europe to England without documentation to escape some kind of troubled past. Rina is employed as a house cleaner by Chris and, due to extensive NDAs he makes her sign, is restricted by informing the authorities of the kidnapped man chained up in the basement.

 

Initially, all signs would suggest that the story would follow Rina’s perspective, but, strangely, the character is pushed to the sidelines. A subplot involving Rina’s past coming back to haunt her adds a bit of tension to the third act, although it ultimately feels ill-fitting for the story about the psychological tug-of-war between Tommy and Chris. As the film wraps up and Rina is completely left behind in the story, even more questions are raised regarding the reason for her inclusion and what, if anything, it adds to the movie.

 

Heel avoids being weighed down by this unnecessary subplot as it converges on a daring, subversive, and well-earned conclusion. Stories of redemption (or lack thereof) are commonplace in media, but Komasa does something with this established theme that feels truly fresh. The final note, which could easily have gone awry in striking the wrong emotional chord, works incredibly well, and never feels forced or unearned. 

 

With a repetitive first half and a duo of rather dislikable lead characters, Heel may test the patience of many viewers. But that seems to be exactly the intention of director Jan Komasa. His film intends to provoke, to push our capacity for empathy to its limits, and to have us thoughtfully assess the merits and pitfalls of redemption.

 

Having a dislikable protagonist is always a risky call for filmmakers, but it pays off in abundance in Heel due to the complexity and nuance of its rich character work.