The Friend: Naomi Watts stars in 'graceful' but flawed dog movie

Naomi Watts in The Friend

(Image credit: FlixPix / Alamy Stock Photo)

From "Turner & Hooch" to "Beethoven", "the tale of a reluctant owner falling in love with a problematic pooch has played out many times on the big screen", said Dulcie Pearce in The Sun. "The Friend" is the latest addition to the canon. It stars Naomi Watts as Iris, a writer who is reeling from the suicide of her friend and literary mentor Walter (Bill Murray, glimpsed mainly in flashback) when she discovers that he has bequeathed her his dog, Apollo. Unfortunately, she lives in a "tiny" New York flat – and Apollo is "a 150lb Great Dane" who has become "deeply depressed" since his master's death.

There are some predictable odd-couple flare-ups, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. Apollo chews up half of Iris's belongings – including her "abortive second novel" – and commandeers her bed. She finds herself "wondering what on earth her late confidant thought she could do for this dog", but of course it turns out that Walter "was more intrigued by what the dog might do for her". Sadly, the answer is neither profound nor exciting: indeed, "seldom has a film ever felt like it's trying so hard not to be interesting".

I was interested in the dog, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator. Named Bing in real life, he is "a solemn, mournful presence" with a peculiar majesty. The human stars are good, too. But "The Friend" isn't just doggy hokum. It is based on a novel by Sigrid Nunez – a meditation on grief and friendship that is so literary and meta, you wonder why they ever thought of making it into a movie. Yet Scott McGehee and David Siegel, "who wrote the screenplay and also direct, do seem to have captured" the book's "essence". Their film "is a graceful, respectful and intelligent interpretation, even if it may prove too dramatically underpowered for some".