Bill Murray and Naomi Watts star as best friends in THE FRIEND, a comedy-drama about a friend leaving his beloved pet, a Great Dane named Apollo, to his best friend. The friend didn’t let the bestie know about this plan, leaving the friend both grieving and trying to find a place for a dog that is not allowed in her no-pets apartment.
There even seems some doubt about whether that was really ever said out loud. But it is what the friend’s second ex-wife, who has the dog now, tells her he wanted. Naomi Watts plays Iris, the friend who is left the dog when her best friend Walter (Bill Murray) suddenly dies.
This smart, human comedy/drama is set in New York among writers, academics and literary types but it finds common ground with anyone who has lost a friend and maybe had to address the question of what to do with a pet left behind.
Naomi Watts and Bill Murray gives excellent, warm and funny performances as these two friends. THE FRIEND is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Sigrid Nunez. It is skillfully directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, who also adapted the novel for the screen. The film also has a wonderful role for Ann Dowd, who plays Iris’ neighbor and friend Marjorie.
The death happens fairly early in the film but we do get a strong sense of their lives and their friendship before that, through many flashbacks to fill out the details, plus a pivotal fantasy sequence where Iris talks to her dead friend Walter about the dog and his death.
Iris, who teaches writing at a college, has been friends with Walter ever since she took his writing class back in college days. Walter is a bon vivant and a writer, a literary figure holding forth at intellectual dinner parties with various tales, including a magical one about finding this beautiful black-and-white Great Dane alone in a park when Walter was out jogging. The dog is poised on the crest of a hill, a perfect picture and Walter just has to approach him. The dog is friendly but has no collar and no micro-chip to identify his owner. Walter takes him into hi brownstone home and names him Apollo. This tale comes out in bits and pieces, in repeated tellings throughout the film, just like some friends might repeat favorite stories that are meaningful in their lives.
Walter may be devoted to his dog but he’s had three wives and numerous girlfriends over the years. He can be entertaining and wonderful, but he can also be irritating, with a sharp tongue and a tendency to always put himself in the best light. In short, your typically flawed human being.
When Walter suddenly dies, Iris and his friends gather for his memorial. There is a bit of an undercurrent of resentment towards Walter but they are there anyway. At the memorial, Iris reconnects with Walter’s first wife, Elaine (Carla Gugino), who was a friend who had been in that same class where Iris first met Walter. Second wife Barbara (Noma Dumezweni) gives the eulogy, while the third and current wife, now widow, Tuesday (Constance Wu) quietly dabs tears off to one side, surrounded by those consoling her. Barbara asks Iris to call her next week, for something important about Walter
The something important turns out to be the dog, Apollo (who gets a credit, played by a dog named Bing). Iris doesn’t want a dog (she’s a cat person) and besides, pets are not allowed in her rent-controlled apartment. Nonetheless, she gives in and brings the giant dog home, with reassurances from Barbara about how well behaved and well trained he is.
It’s not true, of course, which she learns as soon as she smuggles the dog into her apartment, and even before, when the dog balks at getting into the building’s tiny elevator, forcing them to take the stairs.
Inheriting a Great Dane might be a problem for anyone but in New York City, with rent-controlled apartments with no pets allowed rules, it is even more challenging. What’s more, unlike many cities, New York isn’t very pet-friendly, especially for a Great Dane. This isn’t a purse-sized pooch you could just smuggle in somewhere.
On top of that, Iris is supposed to be working on a book about Walter, based on his letters, that her publisher is eager to get out quickly. Walter’s grown daughter Val (Sarah Pidgeon), whom he just met recently, is supposed to be helping but the young Val is not as reliable as she could be.
Struggling to get it all done, Iris sometimes finds herself taking Apollo along on her errands. She is pretty indignant about the no-animals policies she encounters, and routinely expects the guards and doormen charged with enforcing those rules to make an exception for her. She is a bit entitled, and not above violating the rules. Surprisingly, she generally get away with this behavior, sometimes even getting an apology for doormen or front desk security whose job it is to enforce the rule for doing their jobs, rather than calls to security or the police.
Over the course of the film, Iris tries to find a new home for Apollo but mostly looks at Great Dane-only rescues, even signing up for a waiting list for one in Michigan. She does not seem as serious about finding a home for Apollo as she claims, despite what she says and the challenges of keeping him. At the same time, Apollo is clearly depressed and grieving, and his grieving even interferes with Iris’s own grief over the loss of the friend she could talk to endlessly over anything.
As Iris goes through the motions for finding a new home for Apollo, and copes with her apartment’s super, Hektor’s (Felix Solis) repeated reminders that he cannot be there, we see flashbacks of her friendship with Walter.
There is a lot that is very New York and very literary in this film, which will appeal to those of us who love New York and all things books, but it may wear eventually on those who don’t share those sentiments. However, late in the film, there is a turn, as Iris hits a crisis point, after she gets an eviction notice. That turning point opens the story up into a more universal tale of friendship, loss, and grieving, as well as revealing details about Walter and his death.
Even if the New York or academic/literary starts to wear, know you will be rewarded if you wait for this last chapter. No spoilers, but the last part is worth it, as the film opens up into something more universally human experience, perhaps even profound and something we are all likely to experience in some fashion at some point in life.
THE FRIEND opens Friday, Apr. 4, nationwide and at St. Louis area theaters Ronnie’s 20, St. Charles 18, Arnold 14, Town Square 12, and B & B Wentzville Tower 12
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
