In The Friend, writer and teacher Iris (Naomi Watts) finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor (Bill Murray) commits suicide and bequeaths her his beloved Great Dane, Apollo. She reluctantly takes him in, even though her apartment regulations strictly forbid it.
This is based on a popular book by Sigrid Nunez and, whilst I have not read it, from what I understand, a lot of the rough edges have been smoothed over by writers Scott McGhee and David Siegel, who also co-direct. Iris is grieving but I never got the impression that she would have been completely bereft without Apollo.
That is not a criticism of Watts, who is superb, and I wish she had more starring vehicles. Murray is Murray in the few scenes he appears in and Felix Solis does a lot with the small role of Iris’ building supervisor.
It is impossible to make a film like this and not have heart warming moments. It is a pleasure to watch Apollo bond with Iris and they have a number of nicely comic interactions. But the film is definitely overlong with at least three endings and too much maudlin and repetitive voice over in the final few minutes.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10