Displaying items by tag: The Good Boy 2026 movie

THE GOOD BOY

Poland/UK, 2025, 110 minutes, Colour.

Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Anson Boon, Kit Rakusen, Monika Frajczyk, Savannah Steyn.

Directed by Jan Komosa.

Quite an unexpected plot, disturbing and challenging, peace.

The film opens with an extended prologue showing Tommy, a young man out on the town any Yorkshire town, on the loose, no respect for anyone, allowed in crowded nightclub, music and dancing, drinking, drugs, sex, dominating his friends, violence on the streets, his eventual collapse.

Audiences will have strong opinions about young people acting like this and their seemingly reckless waste of life and time, the violent and criminal aspects, and wondering about the risks, punishment, jail time…

This is a Polish coproduction with screen Yorkshire, writing by a Polish and British team, the narrative and acting British, the technical aspects of the film, Polish.

Eventually Tommy wakes up, He finds himself in the basement of a country house, chained, bewildered and angry. Which is where the audience will start to ask questions about how to deal with this kind of young man. Actually, where he is, is the home of a couple and their young son. It quickly emerges that they have taken Tommy, not exactly to punish him but to make him aware of what he is, of what is done, the issue of rehabilitation. The audience is wondering about the motivations of the couple, the sometimes kindly, sometimes severe manner of the father, Chris (Stephen Graham) and his seemingly depressed wife (Andrea Riseborough) and the continued cheerfulness and good manners of the young son, John (Kit Rakusen). Is what the couple doing right, their motivation, a back story, issues of survival and punishment, making Tommy look at social media clips of his drunken sprees violence, his terrorising a young schoolboy?

And what will be the ultimate effect on Tommy, greater self-awareness, change in attitude, or continued bitterness and resentment? It does raise all the questions about how to treat young adult offenders, the role of prison, possibilities for rehabilitation.

And it will depend on how much the audience identifies with Tommy and how much with the husband and wife. And how the film clarifies or confuses their attitude towards methods of rehabilitation.

The film is very well acted, a complication when the couple employ a Macedonian housekeeper who is being pursued by exploitive people smugglers, and Anson Boon so effective as Tommy being seen in the various stages that he goes through, stuck in his old self, the possibilities for a better self.

1. The title? The alternate title, Heel, the chain for a dog? the irony of the original title? For Tommy? To become a good boy? Jonathan as the good boy, “sunshine”?
2. Polish/Yorkshire co-production? The writers, technical, Polish? British cast, locations? Universal themes?
3. The prologue, Tommy, age 19, on the town, his friends, the club, music and noise, drugs, drinking, sex, violence, harassing the schoolboy flashback, his collapse in the street? His girlfriend, her not participating the drugs, her love for Tommy?
4. The contrast with the country house, the grounds, interiors, Chris and Catherine, his past with the police, her grief and withdrawal, Jonathan, his age, sunshine, the good boy? The life? The background of the death of the son, his room, the memories of grief?
5. The revelation of Tommy in the basement, chained, his condition, abducted? The personality of Chris, the fatherly touch, the do-gooding, talking with Tommy, the explanations, the reprimands, the morality and moralising, the videos, sequences on social media and their influence, the records of Tommy’s misbehaviour, his promoting it on social media? His reactions, Chris beating him? Conditions, the bed, food and drink?
6. Kathryn, her personality, withdrawal, secluded life, the encounters with Tommy, supporting her husband, her becoming more alive?
7. Jonathan, his age, with his parents, their affirmation, the encounters with Tommy, the cards, talking with him? Big Brother?
8. The effect on Tommy, audience reaction to him, to the early behaviour, belief in punishment, belief in rehabilitation, Chris and his methods, the offer of the books, The Illustrated Man and the tattoos To Kill a Mockingbird…? His resentment, reactions, limitations of movement in the basement?
9. The gradual change, Tommy more amenable, Chris and the conversations, letting him out of the basement, the fixing up of the roof and the ability for the chain, his greater movement, freedom in the house, meals, music, his ambiguous reactions?

• The change in the household, the freedom of movement, its effect on Tommy, the drive, the chloroform, the picnic in the countryside, returning him home? Tommy and his interactions with the family, more at home?
• Tom and his shrewdness, the numbers for the code, the implement for the chain? The quiet, his escape, the family reactions?
• Tommy, the return home, his mother, reception, going to the club, watching behaviour, his girlfriend and her succumbing to the drugs? His taking her, leaving, leaving his mother at home?
• The chloroform, taking his girlfriend, the car, burning the car, going up the drive, the family receiving him? His new family, the rehabilitation of his girlfriend? The future?