Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a high five! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the wild ‘n wacky “A Minecraft Movie,” the doggie drama of “The Friend” and the rom com “A Nice Indian Boy.”
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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.
Magazines may be becoming an artifact of the past but Hollywood still looks to them for inspiration. In the last few years a half dozen movies found inspiration in the pages of “Esquire,” “Vanity Fair” and “The New Yorker,” including “The Friend,” a new drama starring Dakota Johnson, Casey Affleck and Jason Segel and now playing In theatres and on-demand.
Based on Matthew Teague’s “Esquire” article “The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word,” the film uses a broken timeline—jumping back and forth—to tell the true story of Teague’s terminally ill wife Nicole and their friend-turned-nursemaid Dane. Affleck is Matt, a war correspondent with an attitude. “It’s Friday,” says his editor, “I’ve been tired of you since Wednesday.” He’s an up-and-comer, married to Nicole, a talented musical theatre performer played by Johnson. Her best pal at the theatre is Dane (Segel) a sad sack who can’t seem to get a girlfriend. “It’s not fair,” she says. “I’m the only woman who knows how special you are.”
By the time Nicole is diagnosed with cancer their lives have taken different paths, but Dane leaves his life in New Orleans behind to help his Atlanta-based friends. “Would it help if I stayed for a while? You don’t have to do this alone.” The planned week or two visit turns into months as Dane takes on more responsibility, becoming Matt’s pillar of strength and an indispensable part of Nicole’s transition.
Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite has made a sensitive film about finding your logical, not biological family. Dane is an anchorless man who finds a sense of permanence with his friends. Segel brings his trademarked relatability to the role, exuding warmth but also a sadness due to his rudderless station in life. Staying with Nicole and Matt and their daughters provides him with a home, but it is temporary, a state of affairs bound to end in heartache. Behind every one of his toothy grins is the anxiety of the situation, carefully masked to spare his hosts the extent of his grief. It’s lovely work that quietly defines the width and breath of selfless giving.
Affleck plumbs the depths of the circumstances, examining grief tinged with anger over a situation he can’t control and Johnson brings grace and beauty, especially in the way she looks at Matt, Dane and the children knowing that she won’t be there for their birthdays, holidays etc, to the role of a woman counting her time in days rather than years. Cherry Jones, as a palliative nurse—an “Angel of Mercy” according to Nicole’s doctor—gives a no-nonsense performance that drips compassion.
“The Friend” is a showcase for Segel’s easy charm but also gives the actor a chance to dig deeper. The former sitcom star delivers some much-needed laughs but they are tinged with humility that is very touching.
