Watts shares the screen with a Great Dane who is mourning the death of his master.
3dot Productions/Big Creek Projects
Never work with children or animals.
So goes the oft-quoted W.C. Fields idiom.
Naomi Watts in ‘The Friend’.Credit:3dot Productions/Big Creek Projects
But Iris doesn’t only have to face the weight of her grief.
Never mind that Iris is a cat person and that her rent-controlled NYC apartment does not allow pets.
How loss is not merely a human experience, but one that all creatures face.
Naomi Watts filming ‘The Friend’.Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Apollo becomes a conduit for Iris’s grief.
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A dog is not an actor; it is just a creature existing on screen.
Carla Gugino and Naomi Watts filming ‘The Friend’.Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Pidgeon proves that her keen understanding of emotional wounds is not limited to the stage.
“How can you explain death to a dog?”
(Albeit she’s lying to herself, but that’s neither here nor there.)
Naomi Watts filming ‘The Friend’.Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
The Friendis a love story, one between a woman and the dog she never expected to own.
Apollo is felled by grief, just as Iris is, and the film chronicles that in touching detail.
Some will sayThe Friendis sentimental, and it is.
In all the ways it should be.
It’s a touching reminder that when life is ruff, sometimes you just need a dog.Grade: B+
