Films for Breakfast

Dog movies are nothing new in Hollywood – they have been made time and time again, in countless variations. The Friend is somewhat familiar within this subgenre, as it follows Iris (Naomi Watts) as she navigates the grief of one of her dear friends Walter (Bill Murray), who has passed away unexpectedly. Shortly in the aftermath of Walter’s death, Iris unexpectedly recieves the message that Walter wished for Iris to look after his beloved dog Apollo, a beautiful and massive Great Dane. Relunctantly, Iris accepts this request – only to make sure Apollo finds a good home. But it doesn’t take long for Iris to realize that parting from Apollo is as difficult as accepting the fact that Walter is truly gone.

In a sense, The Friend begins extremely familiar – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Naomi Watts turns in a really solid performance as Iris, and brings a great balance of vulnerability and relatability to the character. Her chemistry with Apollo the dog is really endearing, and while it feels like you’ve seen it before, I can’t deny that films that hold their emotional crux within a relationship between human and pet hold a special place in my heart. Through Apollo, Iris learns so much about grief, acceptance, and the importance of companionship.

Bill Murray is mostly only in the film in flashback sequences, but for a film that centers almost entirely around the event of his passing, it feels quintessential that the film sells the fact that Walter was a complex man who had an unmatched friendship with Iris. For his limited screentime, Murray really sells the character and you feel his absence whenever the film cuts back to present day. This also feels essential to the central idea that suicide impacts people in so many different ways, and reverberates long after you’re gone.

One of the best compliments I can pay the film is that it simply kept me invested throughout the duration of its running time at every angle that it was striving for. As a comedy, the film works well within delivering situational laughs both surrounding Iris learning how to live with the giant that is Apollo, but also situational comedy with all of the side characters. I mostly found the drama to be sincere – I think that suicide is an incredibly tricky topic to pull off on film, and while I think this has one or two questionable moments that confront the idea, I do appreciate that it doesn’t land on one singular answer or statement on the topic. It simply embraces the messiness that accompanies it. Nonetheless, I truly felt everything Iris was going through and found Watts’ performance with this material to be really captivating.

While it feels a bit overlong within its 123-minute running-time and feels a bit by the numbers at times, The Friend is ultimately an endearing and heartfelt drama that embraces the messiness of life and death in a way that has stuck with me days after finishing it. I truly fell in love with Apollo, as I often do with dogs in film, and found his relationship with Iris to really work. The final ten minutes or so truly got me to cry, so for that alone, I highly recommend watching it.