The Friend (2025)

By: Mike Ward on Sunday, April 06

R Running Time: 123 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Fans of Sigrid Nunez’s best-selling book will be drawn to see how this adaptation plays out on screen.

  • Naomi Watts is as terrific as ever, but Bing, the Great Dane who plays Apollo in the movie, is every bit a worthy scene partner and steals the movie.

  • Has important and thoughtful things to say about grief and loss and how easily it is to just accept things and deal with the emotions and complexities of life at a later date.

NO

  • Unfortunately spins its wheels in key moments when the movie should be making a significant, emotional impact.

  • I think it is fair to say the story, in terms of premise and plot, is rather thin and feels long at 123 minutes.

  • Someone described the characters here as insufferable. That’s a harsh critique in my view, but there is something to be said perhaps about a movie focusing on grief and loss, with nearly all of the main characters being women who are greiving over the loss of a problematic, albeit charismatic, male character.


OUR REVIEW

Even in its more somber moments, The Friend is a story of connection and how we deal with loss. Often the two go hand-in-hand, as nothing lasts forever and grief is inevitable. For the main characters in this story, relationships are often complicated, the past blurs with the present, and people wrestle with the “how’s” and “why’s” of things. Trust has, at one time or another, been broken and everyone is left to decide how much they can accept someone’s faults and find ways with which to move forward.

Loss can be the catalyst for such moments. For Iris (Naomi Watts), a novelist and writing teacher, the death of Walter (Bill Murray), her best friend, mentor, and one-time lover, has left her reeling. An early dinner party scene in the opening moments of the film show Walter holding court, a nucleus that this interconnected group of Manhattanites feverishly orbits around.

Then one day he is gone, unexpectedly and by his own hand. Everyone is in shock. The hole Walter leaves behind is difficult to navigate. The nucleus may be removed, but everyone still circles the space he once inhabited.

After the funeral, Iris sits down with Barbara (Noma Dumezweni), Walter’s widowed third wife. Barbara shares that Walter’s Great Dane, Apollo, who he rescued from being abandoned under a bridge, needs a new home. Iris knows her rent-controlled apartment will not allow dogs, but when Barbara shares that “this is what Walter wanted,” Iris agrees and basically decides she will just sort it out later.

This idea - just sort it out later - becomes a recurring theme in The Friend. Characters use this mindset as a coping mechanism for seemingly everything. Walter’s ex-wives stay in contact with each other. His questionable trysts with former students are acknowledged, and somewhat excused. Walter’s personality was seductive and intoxicating. Murray plays this expertly well, even though he has minimal screen time in the film.  

Watts is terrific, reminding us that she can build characters from the inside out. At first, Iris is taut, steady, functional but structured in how she moves through each day. With Walter gone, things start to unravel. 

Her acting partner in many scenes, Apollo, played by Bing, an expressive and focused Great Dane, is dynamic on screen. The dog’s reactions feel genuine and authentic, and he radiates grieving in a way I have not quite seen embodied by an animal actor before. While keeping an eye on Iris, Apollo is also attempting to come to terms with Walter’s disappearance. As Barbara asks Iris, “How do you tell a dog about death?” Apollo, abandoned, found, cared for, then only to be abandoned again, is on a similar journey to the humans around him. 

I don’t know why this is happening to me right now, but I will deal with it and just sort it all out later.

Directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel (Bee Season), and adapted from a best-selling novel by Sigrid Nunez, The Friend changes a few details in its shift from page-to-screen, but finds a kind, compassionate balance in the emotions it portrays. The movie feels “lived in,” set within a New York social circle that takes us into book-lined apartments and fancy dinner and wine parties. We also experience intriguing insights into the mind of the writer - as Iris continues working with Walter’s daughter Val (Sarah Pidgeon) to finish a book with his personal writings and correspondence.

Pidgeon, along with Bing, are two standouts. Pidgeon is nuanced in how she plays her sadness and discomfort with a complicated relationship with her father. Her performance and character certainly could have benefitted from additional screen time. 

Ultimately though, this is Iris’ story, with Watts proving to be a compelling dramatic presence. The film labors in the final act, at times lost in how to reach a satisfying conclusion. Yet when tears fall and two looks are exchanged, we understand that processing grief and accepting loss is part of the journey - for humans and animals alike.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, Bing, Sarah Pidgeon, Noma Dumazweni, Carla Gugino, Constance Wu, Ann Down, Felix Solis, Owen Teague, Josh Pais, Tom McCarthy, Gina Costigan, Sarah Baskin, Juliet Brett

Director: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Written by: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Adapted from the novel “The Friend” by Sigrid Nunez
Release Date: April 4, 2025
Bleecker Street Media