The standout performer in The Friend sounds like he’s already a star, but you won’t have heard of him. Doleful-eyed and expressive, he articulates the deepest emotions with wordless economy. Played by a black-and-white Great Dane called Bing, Apollo is a dog with range.
Which is handy because this sincerely-felt New York dramedy, based on Sigrid Nunez’s much-praised 2018 novel, leans hard on the piebald pooch’s ability to communicate the sadness of losing someone without whom life has no colour and joy. Of course, as a dog – albeit arguably the finest dog actor since Anatomy of a Fall’s Messi – this is communicated via sad eyes, pointy ears and curling up in places he’s not supposed to be.
The devoted Apollo belongs, initially at least, to writer, professor and lothario Walter (Bill Murray, atoning for Garfield here). Then, out of the blue, we’re at Walter’s wake. He’s left instructions for the crestfallen dog to be rehoused with his friend, writer and literary professor Iris (Naomi Watts) – a pretty selfish act considering a) he hasn’t consulted her on it, and b) she lives in a rent-controlled apartment where pets are banned. How does she honour her old friend’s wishes without becoming homeless in the process? Being lumbered with a 180-pound grief metaphor isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
It’s a classic Murray turn in the brief time he’s granted – feckless but kinda loveable all the same, and leaving a trail of broken-hearted ex-wives in (and at) his wake – but this is firmly Watts and Apollo’s movie. Their shared grief acts as an unspoken glue, and she falls for the lugubrious Apollo in spite of herself. He’s adorable, it’s relatable.
Being lumbered with a 180-pound grief metaphor isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
If only the other characters were as fleshed out. Co-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel struggle to superimpose Nunez’s bold formal pivots (the novel drew comparisons with James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Virginia Woolf), but they don’t particularly work on screen – especially in a metatextual flourish that sees Walter ushered back from the dead as a character in Iris’s book.
The Friend is also inattentive to its shallow supporting characters, reducing Walter’s ex-wives to crass parodies (Carla Gugino’s emotionally unresolved Elaine is the exception). It doesn’t always swerve mawkishness either, with one especially glaring and manipulative moment that comes late in the film.
But it’s a lovely New York movie, and spending time in its world of Upper East brownstones, Manhattan parks and Dumbo trails is a real pleasure. In the spirit of Woody Allen, Ira Sachs and Nicole Holofcener, it gently traverses the city’s literary classes – a world of blocked writers and impatient publishers, clever-clever dinner party chat and therapy meltdowns. And it pulls it off without feeling pretentious.
The Friend is a poignantly affecting watch that mostly earns its emotional payoff, delivering gentle laughs along the way. It’ll have them howling in the aisles at the next dog-friendly screening.
In UK cinemas Fri Apr 25. In US theaters now.