Naomi Watts 'simply stunning' in The Friend

On the poster for a new film called The Friend there are three faces – two very well-known actors and an enormous dog. Guess which two were going to give the best performances?

Now I assumed, like everyone else in the audience, that cunning old Bill Murray would once again walk away with it. Not so.

The prize is shared between Naomi Watts, playing writer-turned-editor Iris, and a Great Dane called Bing who gives a stunning turn as Apollo, the beloved pet of Iris’s best friend Walter, played by Murray.

To be fair, Murray’s impact in The Friend is limited by minimal screentime. He dies at the start of the film, appearing only in flashbacks.

If you’ve seen the trailer for The Friend, you’ll know the story couldn’t be simpler. Walter’s widow Barbara summons Iris to take charge of Apollo.

Iris protests – she’s more a cat person, she says. But Barbara’s dog-allergy trumps mere pet preference, so suddenly Iris finds herself the proud owner of an animal bigger than she is.

Well, “owner” is putting it a bit strong, “reluctant flatmate” might be more accurate. Apollo has no interest in Iris, or eating, or getting off her bed. Or anything else really.

Iris is struggling anyway – she’s taken on the job of editing Walter’s letters – and has no skills when it comes to managing a dog. A dog in an apartment building where dogs are forbidden.

Even if you haven’t seen the trailer, you’ve probably got a fair idea where The Friend might be heading. Come on, it’s called The Friend, after all. Iris may protest as much as she likes but the end is inevitable, surely.

So, does it really need a full two hours to tell it?

The short answer is the storyline is merely a hook to hang the film on – a film set among New Yorker literary types. Iris teaches writing, when she’s not walking Apollo around Washington Square and wrestling with her unresolved feelings about Walter.

You’ll find the time whizzes by.

The Friend is based on a novel-stroke-extended essay by New York writer Sigrid Nunez. The book was almost entirely told in the second person, an extended letter to the late Walter.

And you spend a lot of time trying to imagine who, if anyone, he’s based on – Norman Mailer? Tom Wolfe?

In the end of course it doesn’t matter. But it sets the scene, and writer-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s beautiful script allows us to follow Iris’s journey.

Iris and Apollo’s journey, really, because in a way it’s a love story of the old school. And like all great love stories, they don’t understand each other at all to start with.

Dog actor Bing is the big surprise in this film. His eyes are different colours, which possibly adds to their expressiveness, but much of his acting comes from his amazingly articulate ears.

He seems to react to everything he hears and sees, and his many scenes with co-star Watts are moving beyond belief.

But really, that’s because Watts is simply stunning in this film. I had no idea.

I mean, I’ve always liked her, but in The Friend this is “whole-new-level” territory. Her face, her eyes, her silences…. It’s one of those performances that not only reassesses your opinion of her, but makes you want to go back and see all her other films with new eyes.

Listen to Simon Morris review the latest films in At The Movies, available here or on Sundays at 1.30pm on RNZ National.