Bill Murray and Naomi Watts get top billing, but it’s impossible to deny the star power of Bing, the Great Dane who nearly steals the show in The Friend. Adapting the National Book Award–winning novel by Sigrid Nunez, Scott McGehee and David Siegel deliver another wise, insightful character drama, this time leavened both by delightful comedic scenes and by the ever-calming presence of one giant, soulful dog.
Iris (Watts) has had a long, complex friendship with Walter (Murray, also at this year’s Festival with Riff Raff). Walter is an irresistible charmer, a brilliant author, a lover of many women, and a master at letting down loved ones. When he dies suddenly, Iris is left to deal with all he left behind — three ex-wives with unfinished business, his interrupted literary legacy, and his beloved beast Apollo (Bing). It’s not that Iris doesn’t like dogs, but this is Manhattan, and she’ll get kicked out of her building if they find out she’s pretty much trying to house a horse.
Watts delivers a career-best performance here, weaving New York confidence through the anxieties of a struggling writer, through her principled offence at how Walter treated his wives, and through encounters with the women themselves. Life is complicated, and McGehee and Siegel (Montana StoryTIFF ’21, What Maisie Knew, TIFF ’12, The Deep End) reflect that in their writing and in how they direct Watts. They also cast supporting actors of the calibre of Constance Wu, Ann Dowd, Noma Dumezweni, and Carla Gugino, who help create a film of both depth and lightness.
Content advisory: themes of suicide
