Yes, the synopsis for The Friend sounds like a discarded Friends subplot, but there’s emotional truth in this tale of a New Yorker bonding with a massive dog in their shared sadness. Familiar tropes resurface in this adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s 2018 novel — alongside occasional implausible moments — but the graceful sensitivity of Naomi Watts’ performance as protagonist Iris is what you will remember. That and Apollo, the mighty harlequin canine she looks after in her poky West Village flat.
Iris is mourning her best pal, revered writer and professor Walter (Bill Murray, typically strong but a touch under-used) when his third wife Barbara (a steely Noma Dumezweni) insists she take care of Apollo because Walter apparently wanted her to. Apollo, a magnificent beast unsuited to inner-city living, is as bereft at his owner’s suicide as Iris and lies on her bed looking sad, only perking up when Iris reads aloud some of Walter’s old emails. The pair have another worry too, as building managers threaten eviction with increasing readiness.
Having been commissioned to edit Walter’s letters for a book in-between teaching, weeping and walking Apollo, Iris exchanges by turns fond and frustrating memories of Walter with his daughter Val (Sarah Pidgeon) and first wife Elaine (Carla Gugino). Walter probably lost his job because of a #MeToo-ish incident and while this note is believable, haven’t there been far too many American films, books and probably even tea towels made about sleazy old professors/writers who are bafflingly appealing to younger, sexy women?
Also, anyone who has been around Great Danes would recognise that Apollo is in fact extremely well-behaved, even though the characters in writer-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s film act as if he’s a complete terror: more walking bomb than prime woofer. Such hard-to-believe behaviour — even among uptight literary types — is a shame because elsewhere the poignant friendship between woman and dog is affecting and honest.