More often than not, books are better than their movie adaptations. This isn't because the form itself is better, as each is different in distinctly beautiful ways. No, it has more to do with the scope and depth of storytelling a book allows. A film can certainly be novelistic, taking us through decades of time in the lives of its characters, just as a novel can be more intentionally narrow in focus. Still, there will always be something that is lost in the process of adapting a book that already left a mark precisely because of the time we've gotten to spend with it. It then won't come as a surprise that The Friend, the adaptation of the novel of the same name by Sigrid Nunez, is not as good as its source material. Where Nunez managed to confront the pain of loss without sanding off the rougher edges of its characters and paint a full portrait of a woman who is caught in the middle of it, the film version loses some of the richer textures in the process of adapting.
And yet, much like the dog at its center, it's a work that you find yourself growing closer to the longer it goes along. Focusing on the New York writer and teacher Iris, played with quiet poise by Naomi Watts, as she tries to process the unexpected loss of her friend Walter (Bill Murray) while also caring for the dog that he left her with, it sounds like it could be a trite, overly sentimental story. However, it's also a film about suicide, the subsequent anger of grief, the way we try to bury such feelings, and, in a refreshingly honest way, how it is we begin to heal. Just as the filmmaking duo Scott McGehee and David Siegel did with their last film, the shattering Montana Story, it's all about how those we are closest with are also the ones we can have the most fraught relationships with. Even as The Friend is not quite as assured as that and seems a little averse to fully facing the darkness of life in the same way, this is almost fitting as the film is built around Iris herself not wanting to look in the eye what it is that's troubling her.
Much of the film lives in this attempt to cling to routine, with her going about her job teaching or being there for others in Walter's life who are struggling with his loss, though rarely does Iris sit down to process what is happening. That is, until she must figure out what to do with her late friend's dog. Apollo (played by first-timer Bing) is a hulking hound who is impossible to ignore, serving as a possibly blunt though still bittersweet metaphor for the unspoken pain that Iris is carrying with her. Logistically, she must figure out what to do with him as her apartment doesn't take pets, but rarely do you think she won't figure this out. No, it's much more about the journey she takes in doing so and what it reveals about herself. It's here where the film finds a deeper resonance.
It isn't as deep as the book, with many of the film's supporting characters getting short shrift, but Watts is able to weather these narrative storms enough to make The Friend still grab hold of you. When the film then builds to a fleeting yet forceful conversation near the end that breaks the rhythms Iris was using to not have to confront her pain, it's a complicated catharsis that offers more to chew on. Not only does it open up more of the emotions that were present in the book, but it brings to the surface all the ways Walter himself was far from perfect. Even when the overall work is not as incisively written as Nunez's book was, the moments it taps into the more messy truths she uncovers are where it comes together. That it challenges your expectations one final time in the closing frames makes it a film that, despite its shortcomings, still manages to spin a sweet yarn.
The Friend
Rated R
Directed by Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Starring Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, Bing
