Despite Naomi Watts’ run-in with a giant Great Dane, friend Far from your average puppy movie. Even though the film is about grief, there are no slapstick scenes of the dog running away with her, nor is there sadness. This is a fresh, down-to-earth and touching story of writer and teacher Alice (Watts) adjusting to life without her best friend Walter (Bill Murray), a famously lecherous author. Life. His suicide was shocking. But when she learned he had left her Apollo, a nearly waist-high Great Dane, the other shoe dropped.
The show is based on a novel by Sigrid Nunez, which, while much loved and admired, seems out of place on the page: Told in the first person, Iris often speaks directly to Walter, Comment on writing and books, and recall details about their past relationships. But directors Scott McGee and David Siegel avoid all the pitfalls of an adaptation while staying true to the original. Starting with their first feature, Bold suture (1993), which, until recently, had an emotional resonance Montana Story (2021), brother and sister Owen Teague and Haley Lu Richardson reunite on a family farm to create a clever film that often focuses more on character than plot. friend That’s their style, dealing with big questions like life, death, friendship and whether giant dogs belong in a small New York City apartment in a beautiful, light-hearted way.
friend
bottom line
The beautiful triumph of adaptation.
Place: Telluride Film Festival
Throw: Naomi Watts/Bill Murray/Sarah Pidgeon/Carla Gugino/Constance Wu/Norma Dumezweni/Ann Downt/Felix Solis/Owen Teague/Tom McCarthy
Director and screenwriter: Scott McGee, David Siegel
2 hours and 3 minutes
Built by McGee and Siegel friend The voiceover surrounding Iris includes her memories and comments about Walt, while he rarely appears in flashbacks. Watts’s remarkably natural performance finds the right tone: sad but not melancholy, questioning why Walter committed suicide and why he left his dog with her. The plot follows her as she first refuses to accept Apollo, if only because her building doesn’t allow dogs. Walter’s widow Barbara (Noma Dumezweni) – also known as “Wife Three” to Iris and her friends – says it’s because she lives alone and loves animals. But no one thinks this is a real explanation.
When Iris temporarily accepts Apollo and tries to find him a new home, he becomes irresistible. He has one blue and one brown eye, and when he sits up he looks as regal as his name suggests. Neighbors (Ann Dowd, one of many top actors) friend “There’s a pony in your bed. A very sad pony. He does look sad. At first, he seems to be a replacement for Alice’s Walter.” Or, but more importantly, he is a companion in her grief, and their sorrows mirror each other’s. There is humor in the absurd situation. Apollo is sometimes playful, and sometimes he insists on occupying the bed. Liz sleeps on an air mattress on the floor. The film’s emotions are subtle, coming through clearly but silently when Apollo clings to a T-shirt that still smells like Walt.
Murray’s casting was crucial to production friend Works great. His familiar, rumpled look is so endearing that we immediately like Walter and understand Iris’ sadness—much more than we’d only heard about him. We don’t actually know much about Walter, but this movie isn’t really about him.
Some of what we know comes from conversations. Carla Gugino, Alice’s old friend and former student of Walter’s and wife number one, delivers much of the backstory with ease. Constance Wu is the funniest as Wife No. 2, a stylish, annoying woman who is too eager to write a memoir about her ex-husband. Felix Solis plays menacing crime boss in Netflix film Ozarkit was much warmer here because the caretaker of the Ellis Building kept warning her that management would evict her because of the dog. Tom McCarthy plays a therapist in a scene that allows Alice to fully express her grief and perhaps find a solution to her doggy problems.
Teague appears as one of Eilish’s writing students in brief college scenes that add a flavor of her life but aren’t really necessary. More texture is reflected in appearance and location. friend Filmed in New York’s parks and busy streets by Giles Nuttgens (who shot many of McGee and Siegel’s films), the film brings a bright light and clarity to everyday life Brings an extra magical glow. Stacey Battat’s costume design makes Iris look believable – a middle-aged writer not obsessed with fashion, well-dressed but unobtrusive.
One question answered at the end of this adaptation mode is whether Iris will keep Apollo. By that point, it’s clear, perhaps more clearly than in the novel, that Walter left her what she needed to move on without him.