The Friend

• Watched at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Sep. 11th, 2024 (First Watch)
• Format: Regular theatre

The story doesn't know what direction it's taking, which is why at most times it just keeps going on and on which feels like it's never ending and here comes the part where the watcher will feel the long and heaviness of its runtime which is not even long but it seems like that because of the slow and sometimes boring rhythm that the story has.

The dog is for sure the best part of the film. The way it was trained to showcase these emotions and use its body language to tell something is very impressive. I really didn't like the way the story approached Bill Murray's character as it felt very useless. The film to me is more like a story between a dog and a grieving person and not about a suicidal writer who died and left out a dog. It felt very chaotic in this aspect and it could've easily gotten more in depth in terms of this topic or showed a flashback that will support Bill Murray's character. Other than that, nothing more special but overall, a cute and warm film to watch!

This movie is about writers, but the real interesting part is about the dog and the part he plays.

Bill Murray is Walter, he is jogging one day in Brooklyn, along the river, when he sees this Great Dane, Apollo, sitting alone on a hill with no apparent collar or identification. Apollo becomes Walter's companion.

One of his close friends, and formerly a bit more than that, is Naomi Watts (who also is Executive Producer) as fellow writer Iris. She lives in a small, rent-controlled apartment that doesn't allow dogs. At least not yet!

So, right after Walter's untimely death everything points to Iris as the new caretaker of Apollo. This presents a number of difficulties that drive the rest of the story in this movie.

My wife and I watched it at home, on DVD from our public library. It is a refreshingly good movie, in this day of mostly mediocre movies. Watts and the dog are both very authentic in their roles.

Having watched this, I want to read the book. The story is very simple, and beautiful. The adaptation is well done, in that the movie is very competently executed, the cinematography is on point, the score is nice, and so on.

A beautiful book, turned into a beautiful story, competently executed, what's not to like?

To like this, you must like dogs and books. If you despise intellectuals, it wont work, as all the protagonists are writers, and ofc, that big ass Dane. What a beautiful dog.

Bill Murray looks almost dead, and it's beautiful that he's making such movies at this stage of his life.

Everything dies, and how we cope with loss is a universal theme.

I went in expecting a sentimental story about a woman and a big dog, and while that element is definitely there, The Friend surprised me with how layered and restrained it was. Naomi Watts gives a really thoughtful performance-quiet, a little distant, but grounded in real emotion. And Bill Murray, though only present in flashbacks and memory, adds a lot of warmth and depth to the story.

What really worked for me was the tone: melancholic without being heavy-handed, and gently funny in places without trying too hard. The relationship between Iris and the dog felt believable-not overly cute, just human and strange and a little awkward, like grief often is.

The trailer made it seem like a straightforward healing-through-pet story, but the film is more reflective than that, and it lingers in your mind afterward. Some scenes felt a little slow, but overall it earned its quiet pace.

Definitely worth seeing if you're into character-driven stories that give you space to feel without telling you how.

I Cannot understand why this movie got a lot of negative reviews. It's idea was pretty understandable after the get go and the developments were also pretty predictable, but it is a movie with a lot of hurt. And one big Danish dog, with such sad eyes.

I liked the duality of the friendship in this movie. From one side Iris lost her best friend and she is chasing his memory through several channels. From the other side, she got another friend instead. One that doesn't need to talk for expressing his feelings, but you can understand exactly what he means, without even opening his mouth.

The details reveal slowly and after all layers are peeled, we are staying with a woman and a dog. And a problem. The twist almost doesn't exist, actually, but the movie's heart is in the right place, and it still manages to get his audience to get excited and maybe even weep.

Bill Murray is almost nowhere to be found, except in the poster of the movie, to attract the attention of potential audiences. But after reading the accusations about him, probably would be better to remove his figure from the movie's poster and leave the stage to both actual main heroes of this movie.

Naomi Watts is absolutely fantastic in this movie. What a comeback after a long time without any good projects, which she had participated in (Penguin Bloom was the last time she had a good performance - it was in 2020). She is accurate and very convincible in a role that is not so easy to perform.

Constance Wu, Carla Gugino and several other fine actors and especially actresses are participating in this movie, that is not any massive news to drama genre, with sub-genre of man's best friend, but it is definitely a good one, that is worth watching.