“Who’s walking who?” is a common question for some dog owners, but especially for Great Danes whose exceptional size make them look less like a canine and more like a pony.  If a Dane doesn’t want to move, good luck moving them! Yet, in The Friend, the question for both is not about leash manners. But instead, it’s about “who is healing who?”

It’s just one of many questions that pops up during the adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s novel of the same name.  The query that plagues Iris (Naomi Watts) most is ‘What will happen to the dog?’  It’s a question she wonders if her closest friend Walter (Bill Murray) might have asked himself before deciding to take his own life.  According to Walter’s wife (Noma Dumezweni) he considered Iris to be the contingency plan for Apollo, a huge harlequin Great Dane who in no way will fit in her small, 500 square foot, New York apartment.  That’s even ignoring the fact that dogs aren’t allowed in her building.  

But since Apollo, an older dog for his breed, is whiling away his days in a kennel, Iris is swayed to take him.  Only temporarily of course, until a rescue or new owner can be found.  She walks the dog up the five floors to her apartment, since he refuses to go in the elevator (see, stubborn Danes dont want to move) and reluctantly gives up her bed and space to her new roommate.  

That roommate is depressed.  He won’t eat.  He spends his days sleeping on her bed, guarding one of Walter’s old shirts, looking at her with sadness in his eyes.  Apollo completely personifies the way that Iris feels on the inside, even as she tries to get on with editing Walter’s last book with his daughter (Sarah Pidgeon) and teaches writing classes at a university.  Walter was Iris’ mentor, her best friend, her onetime lover.  Now she’s had this dog thrust upon her.  As she tries to navigate through her own grief, another question moves through her mind – ‘How do you explain death to a dog?’

Adapted and directed by the team of Scott McGehee and David Siegel (What Maisie Knew, Montana Story), The Friend presented a unique challenge.  The book is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator where a lot of the story is in her own imagination.  They bring some of that into play here, with a voice over from Iris that expresses much of what she might want to ask Walter, and gives insight to her feelings.  Most of the writing works, feeling somewhat lyrical, an important element considering the main characters themselves are writers and exist in those circles. 

Watts is delivering some of her best work in this film, and that matters since it certainly has moments where it lags during its over two hour run time.  It feels as if it might end many times, adding superfluous scenes before its eventual finale.  Murray isn’t around for much, though the pair share a very meta scene in the third act that describes writing the book the movie is based upon.  The two have a great back and forth, a consequence of their real-life friendship, a bond first apparently developed while they starred together in St. Vincent.

Courtesy of Mongrel Media

The Friend really depends on the chemistry between Watts and Apollo, played by Iowa native Bing. Watts is no stranger to films involving animals (see 2020’s Penguin Bloom) and is herself a dog owner, albeit to a dog on the other side of the size spectrum, a Yorkshire terrier/chihuahua mix named Izzy.  That type of affection for our four legged friends is key to this story.  As Apollo, Bing is probably one of the saddest looking dogs imaginable.  He’s expressive, his eyes soulful, and as he lumbars around he embodies grief.  

At this moment in their lives, Apollo is Iris’ emotional soulmate.  He’s the only one that seems to completely understand the loss that Iris has experienced.  Of course as the weeks go by, even as a self-professed cat lover, Iris begins to fall for Apollo.  The audience does too.  So when the film mentions too many times how old Apollo is it’s certainly cause for concern.  Worry of foreshadowing kind of takes over any other emotion.  This, however isn’t Marley & Me, don’t expect those sorts of tears, even if the film might still deliver them.  

The last question becomes, who really is ‘The Friend’ the title refers to?  While some can argue it’s Walter, truly Iris and Apollo’s friendship becomes the centre of this story.  It’s a bond that evolves, that forces Iris to examine her grief, her relationship with mortality itself.  For many, a relationship with a pet is the greatest, closest friendship you can have.  Few films really examine this human-animal bond well.  The Friend seems to recognize its importance, from both sides.  

Iris and Apollo were first joined in mourning. But they come through the other side and what was once Iris’ narration about her departed friend, becomes words to her new four-legged one.  She accepts that time may be waning for her companion and in so she says what will resonate deeply with so many pet owners, “I want you to live as long as I do.  Anything less is unfair.”  

In the end, The Friend makes itself only too apparent. Dog lovers in particular will find themselves falling for Bing and will be able to see themselves in the way Apollo and Iris support one another.  Even if the film itself feels bloated, its arc predictable, it is redeemed by Watts and her supersized co-star who will win over even the coldest of hearts.