The Reel Review
Following the suicide of her best friend and mentor, a New York City writer is bequeathed his Great Dane, causing a great disruption, and some introspection, about her own life. Naomi Watts and Bill Murray star in this dramedy adapted from the award-winning 2018 novel by Sigrid Nunez.
Excellent performances from Watts and an ensemble cast that includes Carla Gugino (The Life of Chuck, The Haunting of Hill House) and Ann Dowd (Hereditary, The Handmaid’s Tale) are still unable to offset the clever yet awkwardly sluggish and at times pretentious story about the grief experienced by loved ones of those who kill themselves. Murray is his typical sarcastic self, but it is Bing, as the Great Dane Apollo, with his sweet, mournful eyes, who is a scene stealer, even when destroying the furniture or commandeering the bed.
Co-writer/directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel (Montana Story) intended The Friend as an ode to both grieving people and grieving pets, but their muddled, low stakes screenplay never really gels. Often tedious, it does have a sweet ending and a park filled with dogs in the third act to keep the pet lovers among us at least visually entertained.
REEL FACTS
• Author Sigrid Nunez won the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction for “The Friend.”
• Owen Teague, who appears in The Friend as one of Iris’ students, starred in the writer/directors’ 2022 drama, Montana Story.
• Longterm writing/directing collaborators Scott McGehee and David Siegel were nominated for prizes at the Cannes and Sundance film festivals for their 2001 crime drama The Deep End, which starred Tilda Swinton as a mother trying to protect her son during a murder investigation.
Video & Photo
