The Friend

April 25 – 29

7 pm
1:30 pm Sunday Matinée

Drama
Rated PG – 1h 57m

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) dies suddenly and bequeaths her his beloved 150 lb. Great Dane. The regal yet intractable beast, named Apollo, immediately creates practical problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones, his looming presence constantly reminding her of her friend’s problematic choices in both life and death. Iris’s ever-evolving adaption to her new circumstances doesn’t get old. It’s a learning process viewers will savor. The emotional hooks pile up and life lessons do too as the four-legged friend becomes a blessing for all. Wisely McGehee and Siegel’s script keeps the drama in the present with a few flashbacks.

The film is a love letter to the canine community. It’s also one of the warmest depictions of New York in recent memory. A wishful image of present-day Gotham. Clean streets. No rats in the subway. Few to no homeless folks living desperate lives. An absence of belligerent people. A calmness that doesn’t’ exist. It’s almost like a Woody Allen film, only there’s a talented Black actress in a key supporting role, and that’s how you know it’s not. This is an elongated (editor Isaac Hagy, Atlanta), 1h 59m “I love New York” commercial masquerading as an indie film. Disarming in a beguiling way.

Appollo (the dog played by Bing) steals 50% of the scenes, without saying a word. It’s all in his eyes, though some may wish at some point he’d let go and howled at the moon. Watts steals the other 50% from him. Her Iris possesses a wondrous naiveté. As she goes on a voyage of self-discovery, that excursion becomes increasingly charming. Watts makes each of her cathartic moments worth the wait: “I am the emotional support human and it’s the dog that can’t cope.” Her best scene is inside a shrink’s office, on a couch, where emotions get the best of her. A river of tears flows. It’s a cleansing. A turning point Watts mines it like a champ.

Iris has a lot to learn: “I feel like my life story is being written by somebody else.”  Appollo does too: “How can you explain death to a dog?” And so, they’ll learn about loss and coping, together. And if they try really hard, the big sad dog may become the big well-adjusted dog. And that will suit adult audiences just fine. Never work with children or animals. So goes the oft-quoted W.C. Fields idiom. But The Friend, is a lively argument for why animals, particularly dogs, might just make the best scene partners.