THE FRIEND: 3 ½ STARS. “the transformational power of companionship.”
SYNOPSIS: In “The Friend,” a new drama now playing in theatres, Naomi Watts plays a woman who must clean up the loose ends of her late friend Walter’s estate, including finding a home for his massive Great Dane named Apollo.
CAST: Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, Sarah Pidgeon, Carla Gugino, Constance Wu, Ann Dowd, Bing. Directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel.
REVIEW: Dog lovers planning on seeing “The Friend” may want to add in a bit of extra cash for Kleenex into the weekly budget. An understated story about the transformational power of companionship, it will pull at your heartstrings like a Great Dane pulling on its leash.
Bill Murray plays Walter, an author, raconteur and university professor. He’s also the proud dad to a dog so large it puts the Great into Great Dane. Named Apollo, the dog was found abandoned and became Walter’s cohort in the months leading up to his death by suicide.
After the funeral Walter’s widow Barbara (Noma Dumezweni) approaches her late husband’s best friend Iris (Naomi Watts). “I wanted to ask you if you could take the dog,” she says. “This is what Walter wanted.”
Trouble is, Iris lives in a rent-controlled New York City apartment with a no dogs policy. Also, she doesn’t really like dogs, but something about Apollo’s grief at the loss of his master clicks with her, and soon the two are cooped up in Iris’s small apartment, despite the objections of her superintendent Hektor (Felix Solis).
“The Friend” is a gentle movie that is about much more than if Iris can finagle a way to get Apollo on her lease. This is a movie that, in very subtle ways, essays the difficult process of moving after a friend takes their own life, especially as the echoes of the life that once was still reverberate loudly.
It meanders and is occasionally repetitive, but the emotional stakes are very high. Watts plays Iris on simmer, gradually allowing her grief to come to a boil. Two remarkable scenes, one in a psychiatrist’s office, the other an imaginary confrontation, reveal the character’s depth without excessive sentimentality.
Murray, who appears only briefly, is a welcome presence, but it is Bing the Great Dane and his expressive eyes, who deserves top billing.
“The Friend” is a low-key but heartfelt film that is more than just a movie about a depressed, cute dog. It’s a movie about a depressed, cute dog that treats the dog’s feelings with grace and care.
