A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Friend” (2025).
Although “The Friend” is marketed as a Bill Murray movie, it’s really Naomi Watts’ film. The reason for this is that Bill Murray’s character, Walter, dies within the first 5 minutes of the film. Even with the flashbacks we get, his screen time can’t be more than about 15 minutes. Aside from Watts, the other main star of the film is a Great Dane called Bing. For this is very much a doggie film. And the question I know you are asking is “Does the dog die?”
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“The Friend” Plot:
We are in New York City. Walter (Bill Murray) is a famous author with a colourful past. After he commits suicide, his former student, former lover and best friend Iris (Naomi Watts) gets a nasty surprise: Walter wants her to look after his adopted Great Dane called Apollo. But Iris lives in a small, rent-controlled apartment in Greenwich Village and no dogs are allowed.
Certification:
UK:Â 15;Â US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, Sarah Pidgeon, Carla Gugino, Constance Wu, Noma Dumezweni, Josh Pais.
Directed by: Scott McGehee & David Siegel.
Written by: Scott McGehee & David Siegel. (From the book by Sigrid Nunez).
Running Time: 1h 59m.
“The Friend” Summary:
Positives:
- Naomi Watts is fantastic and so is the dog, Bing.
- The film is a love letter to New York and hits lots of famous movie beats.
Negatives:
- The set-up feels false and the plethora of characters feel unexplored.
- The film outstays its welcome.
Review of “The Friend”:
A love letter to New York.
The first thing that struck me about this film is “haven’t I seen this before”? Because there are so many scenes in this film that seem set-ups from other NYC-based movies. I’m sure this was deliberate: the opening shots took me straight back to Woody Allen’s “Manhatten” and “Annie Hall”; as Iris is manhandling Apollo through the bustling streets of New York, we get a rendition of “Everybody’s Talkin’ At Me” from “Midnight Cowboy”; and I even thought there were similarities in the skyline shot of Apollo with the opening shot of “Sleepless in Seattle”. It’s a very photogenic city and Giles Nuttgens’ cinematography shows it off well.
Watts is great and Murray is Murray.
With the exception of Murray, all of the significant actors in the film are female. It’s a very ‘female-led’ story. As such, I rather expected the director to be female… but no.
The star of the acting though is Naomi Watts who delivers a terrific performance as the frustrated novelist (she is editing Walter’s “letters” collection), evicted from her own bed and having her life ruined by a huge canine. I don’t understand why Watts doesn’t have a bigger career: looking back at her filmography for the past 10 years (her film after this one is the remake of “Emmanuelle”!) makes me think she needs a better agent!
For the limited time he’s on screen, Bill Murray is good value: he is expert at doing much with very little facial movement. But I do understand that he is a bit Marmite with people: Bill Murray tends not to have much range in the characters that he plays… most of time he just seems to be playing ‘Bill Murray’. Here he plays – in a deadpan way – a pretty outrageously colourful character: one who has committed serial adultery with his student charges, fathered an illegitimate daughter (Val, nicely played by Sarah Pidgeon) and left a string of mistresses and ex-wives in his wake.
The canine actor, Bing, playing Apollo, is also splendid. In the scenes where he is supposed to be grieving, he really does look utterly miserable. I’m not sure how a trainer manages to get a dog to act that way… do they just not feed him for a week? (joke).
But it’s all very busy.
On the whole I enjoyed this movie as a gentle analysis of the effects of grief on both humans and canines. But as a piece of storytelling, it seems to stuff far too many characters into the mix to get to know any of them other than superficially. All of Walter’s ex wives get very little screen time: I really didn’t understand why the current wife Barbara (the excellent Noma Dumezweni) couldn’t keep Apollo herself (and why Iris didn’t just put her foot down and demand that she did). This is a real flaw in the movie’s set-up.
The only time these characters got interesting was with Iris and Elaine (Carla Gugino) discussing Walter’s brief affair (with Iris) while married to Elaine. The pair feel like women both abused by the same man but for different reasons.
A tad overlong.
There seemed to be a natural point where the film could have ended…. but it just didn’t know when to quit. We seemed to have a number of endings bolted on that were really unnecessary.
But… does the dog die?
You can’t say that you weren’t warned. It’s made clear that the dog is elderly when Walter finds it as a stray. And the vet describes the breed as “butterfly dogs”, only expected to live for around 5 to 7 years. I won’t provide spoilers here in the main text: but fair to say, the other four women in my screening were all in floods of tears at the end.
But as I’m aware many sensitive souls may avoid the film completely unless they know what the outcome is, I WILL spoil the ending in the Spoiler section below the trailer.
Triggers
The film is about grief and also about suicide, which may be triggering for some viewers.
Summary Thoughts on “The Friend”
I originally had this film at 3.5 stars since I really enjoyed the watch, but with a few days of retrospective consideration I think that’s a tad generous. There is a good 90-minute film in here. ‘Simplify the cast somewhat and trim 30 minutes off the run-time and try again’ would be my message to the filmmakers.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “The Friend”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Df2g0Gl6o.
Spoiler Section:
Don’t read past this point if you’ve not seen the movie.
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NO, SERIOUSLY!
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Does the dog die?
Actually, no… the dog does NOT die at the end of the film. The film absolutely builds itself up to that point (the filmmakers are utter bastards!), but the dog does live to the end credits. It was the expectation that sent my fellow cinemagoers over the edge!
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