The Friend (dirs. Scott McGehee and David Siegel)

by Jack Martin | Apr 25, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 120 mins

UK Distributor: Universal Pictures

UK Release Date: 25 April 2025

WHO’S IN THE FRIEND?

Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, Sarah Pidgeon, Constance Wu, Ann Dowd, Noma Dumezweni, Felix Solis, Owen Teague, Carla Gugino, Gina Costigan, Josh Pais

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Scott McGehee and David Siegel (directors, writers, producers), Liza Chasin and Mike Spreter (producers), Trevor Gureckis and Jay Wadley (composers), Giles Nuttgens (cinematographer), Isaac Hagy (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A writer (Watts) inherits a Great Dane from her friend (Murray)…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE FRIEND?

You know the drill with this sort of film: unfulfilled human meets unruly animal (dog, cat, penguin, you name it), human is forced to care for said animal in an environment where dogs aren’t entirely welcome, hijinks ensue, and through it all the two unlikely bedfellows become the closest of friends. Except, The Friend somehow both is and isn’t that film.

Adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s novel of the same name by filmmakers Scott McGehee and David Siegel, The Friend takes the formula previously applied to films like Marley & Me and Beethoven, and approaches it not as an all-out comedy like those and other movies, but as a tender and mature drama that explores heavy existential themes such as grief and death – one that so happens to feature a lovable dog at its centre. The end result is more endearing than it ought to be, as McGehee and Siegel manage to craft a very human film that certainly cares a great deal for its central human-animal relationship, even if at times it steers head-first into pure schmaltz.

The film focuses on Iris (Naomi Watts), a writer and teacher living in a New York apartment who is left devastated by the sudden suicide of her close friend Walter (Bill Murray). She is further rocked by the news that Walter has unexpectedly bequeathed her Apollo, his loyal Great Dane whom she must now look after despite her building being strict with its “no pets” policy. Apollo, though, is equally emotional over his master’s death, and makes less than a good first impression with Iris by taking over her bed and wrecking the place whilst she’s away, much to her frustration. But of course, the two grieving souls soon find a connection with each other, one that compels Iris to think twice about shipping him off to a rescue centre in order to not be evicted from her apartment.

It’s the kind of movie that, similar to the recent Steve Coogan/penguin team-up The Penguin Lessons, plays to a particular audience who might be looking for old-fashioned sentimentality, in something that could well have been given a strong Oscar campaign in the years when a certain mega-producer was the toast of the town. The Friend is a stronger film than The Penguin Lessons, though, because it takes more time to focus on the main relationship as it grows from being this major burden (and not just for Watts’s Iris) to a truly co-dependent bond where they effectively serve as each other’s emotional support animals. McGehee and Siegel’s script allows both characters plenty of room to express their deeper feelings while building a reliable chemistry that expands beyond the typical human-dog hierarchy, which not just Watts but also Bing – the animal actor portraying Apollo – quite excellently convey through a pair of powerful performances.

The filmmakers wisely anchor their film around these two performers, for beyond the adorable nature of their on-screen friendship (Bing is of course the MVP, and needless to say is a good boy indeed), The Friend tackles some difficult topics that might have been trickier to swallow without their presence. Grief takes on a huge presence here, as numerous characters other than Iris and Apollo are also shown to struggle with their own sense of loss, as well as the selfishness of the inciting incident surrounding Bill Murray’s Walter. His adult daughter Val (Sarah Pidgeon), for instance, is barely holding herself together, as are his numerous ex-wives, among them Carla Gugino’s Elaine and Constance Wu’s Tuesday – the latter of whom is perhaps given the most one-dimensional role of the bunch – all of whom, least of all Iris, can comprehend that Walter would do something as reckless as commit suicide, and for seemingly no apparent reason. Rather than flooding their movie with endless misery and self-pity, McGehee and Siegel spend considerable time on the deeper psychological issues of losing someone that add much-needed depth to this formula, without flailing into self-parody.

While there’s certainly a lot of heart to the movie, it also has its fair share of flaws. It is slightly overlong, coming in at exactly two hours, and you can tell which parts could have been trimmed or cut entirely without losing much of the dramatic momentum, namely Watts’s inconsistent narration that drops in and out of the movie at its own leisure, to tell us things that we had already picked up on with the emotional state of certain characters. There’s also a late scene with both Watts and Murray that is well-written, and especially well-acted, but it goes on for longer than it needs to, well after the viewer has understood what the intentions are and how they’re being delivered. A sub-plot involving Watts potentially being evicted from her apartment doesn’t really go anywhere, and other actors are introduced but aren’t given quite as much to do as others.

Like Apollo, the film is often messy and uncertain of itself, but considerably well-behaved and with an adorable heart at its centre. It’s wholesome viewing, especially for those who enjoy the likes of Marley & Me but wished it didn’t focus too much on the juvenile side of owning an unruly dog, and luckily the film has talented enough writers at its helm to steer it toward a meaningful conclusion, while still giving dog-lovers plenty of canine goodness to wag their tail for.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Friend is a sweet-natured drama that tackles some heavy themes underneath the familiar human-animal relationship formula, which itself is put to effective use thanks to the strong performances by Naomi Watts and canine actor Bing, though its indulgent length draws things out more than it perhaps needed to.