The Friend: Film Review
After previously working together 11 years ago on the excellent St. Vincent, Naomi Watts and Bill Murray reunite on-screen in The Friend.
Watts stars as the writer and teacher Iris, whose life is thrown into chaos when her late best friend, professor and mentor Walter (Murray) bequeaths her his Great Dane, Apollo. It’s not a remotely practical request – her New York studio apartment is far too small for the gigantic canine and pets aren’t allowed in her building. After an initial rough patch, Apollo helps Iris deal with the loss of her friend and reconcile her feelings for him.
I must admit that I expected this to be a comedy about a woman and her big dog. There are definitely some amusing moments – Apollo dominating the bed, refusing to take the lift and listening to her read – and it’s heartwarming watching them develop a bond and come to understand each other. But it’s primarily a drama about two characters emotionally supporting each other through grief (yes, Apollo is grieving his master too!)
As much as I liked the dog story, I was more gripped by Walter’s relationship history and chequered past. This area is written very well and details about his life are revealed slowly, giving us just enough information but not too much. There are a lot of women and his life – including past and present wives Elaine (Carla Gugino), Tuesday (Constance Wu) and Barbara (Noma Dumezweni) and his daughter Val (Sarah Pidgeon). It was fascinating learning more about these women, their history with Walter and relationships with each other.
There were a few elements I didn’t warm to. Watts’s voiceover – which she’s reading from her character’s book – felt pretentious and unnecessary and personally didn’t add much for me. It was also too long and felt like it was going to end about 10-15 minutes before it actually did.
Watts is terrific as a woman battling an existential crisis. So much is changing in her life at once – she’s lost her best friend and now she’s got a dog on her hands! It’s a lot to cope with and she naturally struggles to keep on top of it all. She puts on a brave face and does her best but you know she’s deeply in mourning. All of the female cast members are impressive, while Murray delivers exactly what you’d expect. He’s actually not in the film very much so his fans may be disappointed.
I love dogs and Apollo is a majestic beauty so it was very easy for me to like The Friend, but something held me back from loving it.
In cinemas from Friday 25th April