Dog owners can agree: Once you take ownership of a furry friend, every significant decision you consider for the next 12+ years becomes punctuated with, “Well, what do we do with the dog?” InThe Friend, the latest film centered on a gorgeous and loving canine, the dueling narrators (Naomi WattsandBill Murray, reunited years afterSt. Vincent) pose that question. It’s sad to consider what lies in store for these beloved pals of ours when we die before them, a predicament which kickstartsThe Friend, written for the screen and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, working off the bestselling novel by Sigrid Nunez.
The talented ensemble will impress viewers, but they’re no match for “the friend” at the film’s center: a Great Dane that will steal your heart. If onlyThe Friend’s end result didn’t linger on the less impressive human elements throughout.
Must Love Dogs
The Friend
Iris has had a long, complex friendship with Walter, an irresistible charmer, a brilliant author, a lover of many women, and a master at letting down loved ones. When he dies suddenly, Iris is left to deal with all he left behind — three ex-wives with unfinished business, his interrupted literary legacy, and his gigantic dog, Apollo.
One ofBill Murray’s best performancescame in the filmBroken Flowers, in which his character learns he may have a son, and so travels the country to confront his ex-lovers. That film comes to mind pretty quickly inThe Friend, after the death of Bill Murray’s character Walter, a successful writer and ex-professor. His early passing in the film leads to a funeral that reveals his spread of flings from over the years: Elaine (Carla Gugino), Tuesday (Constance Wu), Barbara (Noma Dumezweni) — the latter of whom has a predicament on her hands once Walter dies (by suicide, no less).
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Barbara approaches Walter’s friend and former student Iris (Watts) after the funeral and asks that Iris take Walter’s dog as his new owner. And if you’ve seen the film’s promotional campaign, this is no Pomeranian we’re talking about. “Apollo” is an enormous Great Dane, thoughtful and grief-stricken, just like Iris, an intelligent scribe whose mentor was Walter. And yes, the two also had a little romance on the side back in the day. On that note, sure, there’s nothing wrong with most age-gap romances — but the way directors McGehee and Siegel formally introduce us to the Walter-Iris dynamic from the get-go feels too father-daughter-y and thus becomes off-putting when we learn the realities of Walter’s rapports with all the females who grace his forthcoming funeral.
No surprise that Iris is utterly resistant at first. She happily lives alone with no disturbances, so that she can work on her latest writing project. Oh, and her building doesn’t allow dogs. So that settles that, right? But Iris must begrudgingly accept once Barbara claims it was Walter’s specific wish if anything were to happen to him. This is indeed “what will happen to the dog," per the earlier life question. And watch out for comedic scene-stealer Constance Wu as Walter’s lover Tuesday (what a name), who is comically offended that she wasn’t the one chosen to take Apollo. Plus, you’ll love seeing what happens later on, when Tuesday tries her hand at dog sitting for just a single day.
Canines Over Career Woes
The typical dog-movie fun and games ensue between Iris and Apollo, but with a grief-stricken edge. She tries and fails to fit mopey Apollo into her busy New York life of teaching at the nearby college, dealing with her stuck-up publisher (Josh Pais in vintage deadpan form), and keeping the peace with nosy neighbors like Marjorie (the wonderful Ann Dowd) and the increasingly unfriendly building manager Hektor (Felix Solis, always solid). There are times you want to chuckle at Iris’ misfortune, lugging around a Dane that often appears quite larger than her. But it’s also a tragic tale, so at times we don’t exactly know how to react. Is that the point?
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Then, there’s co-star Murray. Directors like Sofia Coppola (On the Rocks), Jim Jarmusch (The Dead Don’t Die) and Wes Anderson (The French Dispatch) have mastered how to utilizeMurray’s elderly, deadpan charm in recent years. And for Watts, a good example of her skilled complexity laced with relentless humor can be found in the lateDavid Lynch’sTwin Peaksrevival. The comedic edge of both these fine stars is sorrowfully missing inThe Friend, a movie that’s begging for laughs at times but also struggles to find its dramedy tone. It feels like directors McGehee and Siegel wanted audiences to chuckle more often than not; if they didn’t, they probably wouldn’t have cast comedy legend Murray for his small but vital role. Unfortunately, the humor is overly subdued.
The Divine Dog Apollo
The Friendalso suffers from missed opportunities, like when one of Iris’ nosy students catches on to her new furry friend and mentions how there’s a local Dane hangout in the nearby park every Sunday. But this is never followed up on, sadly. Seeing Watts struggle with Apollo in the park, a sort of utopia for dog lovers, would mark another potential highlight in the film — which is already a whopping two full hours long. Your buttocks may begin to fall asleep during a number of unnecessarily lengthy scenes that fail to wind down the third act.
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And finally, there’s Apollo, who effectively serves as a unique portrait and emblem of grief throughout, hindering Iris’ efforts to complete her project at hand (which is about Walter’s life, of course) and creating a bit of chaos in the world around him. To that end, the name “Apollo” can be perceived as ironic, for any mythology nerds. If onlyThe Friendfocused more on this elegant creature and gave Apollo a better third act instead of overly diverting to the more exhausting human figures who surround it — folks who are blatantly far less interesting.
From Bleecker Street,The Friendwill be released in theaters nationwide on April 4.
