If there were more suicides there’d be less suicides muses Bill Murray’s character in the pooch perfect pooch picture, THE FRIEND.
Murray’s character, Walter, does top himself, and bequeaths his behemoth hound, Apollo, to Iris, played by Naomi Watts. Iris is Walter’s ex lover and literary executor and not really a pooch person.
Reluctantly bringing the enormous dog into her tiny Manhattan apartment, Iris is hounded by the owners to can the canine due to their no pets allowed policy.
Initially, there is a mutual disdain between Iris and the Great Dane, the mastiff muscling the diminutive human out of her bed, his outsized presence upending both her professional commitments and her daily routine.
But with fidelity to former fido films, Iris develops a surprising kinship with the
soulful animal and the unlikely duo begins to move through their shared grief, tentatively embarking on a surprising path toward acceptance and healing.
Written and directed by award-winning filmmakers David Siegel and Scott McGehee, adapted from the National Book Award-winning novel by Sigrid Nunez, THE FRIEND again illustrates the star wattage of Naomi Watts who also serves as one of the producers. Her performance as a woman at her wits end is enormously affecting.
Bill Murray is wonderful as the wisecracking world weary womaniser Walter, and Bing is stupendously appealing as Apollo.
Visually stunning, Director of Photography Giles Nuttgens captures the grand architectural landscape of Manhattan, both exterior and interior, nuanced by Kelly McGehee’s production design and Stacey Battat’s costumes.
Accompanied by a musical score by Jay Wadley and Trevor Gureckis augmented by Iggy Pop’s rendition of Everybody’s Talkin’ and Bryan Ferry’s cover of As Time Goes By, THE FRIEND is an audience friendly film fetching feelings of fondness, fearlessness and friendship.
