The Friend

Watch: The Friend

3/28/20251h 59m

Theatrical (limited) Release (US)

Overview:

New York City writer Iris finds her comfortable, solitary life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor bequeaths her a Great Dane named Apollo. The huge dog immediately creates practical problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding with Apollo, she begins to come to terms with her past, and her own creative inner life.

Director:

David Siegel

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$4,139,459.00

Key words:

new york city
suicide
based on novel or book
mentor
writer
dog
death of friend
informative

Cast

Naomi Watts

~ as ~

Iris

Bill Murray

~ as ~

Walter

Ann Dowd

~ as ~

Marjorie

Constance Wu

~ as ~

Tuesday

Sarah Pidgeon

~ as ~

Val

Carla Gugino

~ as ~

Elaine

Noma Dumezweni

~ as ~

Barbara

Felix Solis

~ as ~

Hektor

Owen Teague

~ as ~

Carter

Bing

~ as ~

Apollo

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 7 month(s) ago
7
“Walter” (Bill Murray) is a cranky old author who decides that he’s had enough of life and so leaves his wife “Barbara” (Noma Dumezweni) with a four-foot, four-legged, slobbering problem. She decides that the best place for “Apollo” is with his longtime friend “Iris” (Naomi Watts). Bluntly, she would rather stick pins in her eyes, but she’s a bit of a sucker for a sob story and so soon she he has a new roomie in her tiny, rent-controlled, apartment where she is swiftly relegated from her bed to the floor. The mutt is clearly pining for his master, so she is going to have to learn how to get it to eat, sleep, do as it’s told and get off her mattress! Meantime, her friendly building supervisor has reminded her that pets are prohibited, and so she’d better come up with a plan B or else she might not even have the carpet to sleep on. What now ensues is an amiable bonding exercise that is entirely predictable, but that allows Watts and her canine companion to gently entertain us with some silly antics whilst addressing issues of friendship, trust and even a little betrayal. I thought it might have worked better on a stage, as the dialogue is rather more important here than the imagery, but with Murray featuring only sparingly there might be too much risk of the real star of the film - the dog - causing a bit of mayhem with an audience a few feet away! You’ll never remember this, even if you are the world’s greatest dog-lover, and it takes far too long to get going, but once the thing is up and running it’s a pleasant enough watch.