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This week at The Tryon Theatre is “The Friend,” a film based on Ingrid Nunez’s 2018 novel of the same title. The film explores aging, loss, and the ever-important bond between humans and dogs. 

The film is, in many ways, a more straightforward presentation of the same subjects and themes present in the novel, with less exploration of interior thought and more exteriorly registered emotion, playing to the strengths of film as a visual medium. It incorporates more levity and comedy than the novel, mining the trials of pet ownership for many moments of slapstick humor. 

The narrative of this film is less concerned with building a distinct plot than with the emotional journey of the protagonist, Iris, played by the excellently expressive Naomi Watts. Nonetheless, there is a well-framed setup for the ensuing narrative. Iris, a writer living in New York, loses her professional mentor in a particularly difficult-to-process fashion and is beset with all manner of painful grief as a result. Amidst the swirling madness of her flailing career and her newly unmired emotions, Iris comes into the guardianship of her former mentor’s Great Dane, Apollo, a dog with a personality to match its gargantuan size. 

Iris is hesitant to fold the rambunctious beast into her delicately private and contained life, with his boisterous presence threatening her sanity and his very existence threatening her tenuous lease agreement. 

Ultimately, “The Friend” is concerned with the process of grieving, of how it hangs loosely over every aspect of one’s life, a burden that can be momentarily forgotten but inescapably bears down again upon one’s heart. As anyone who has experienced great loss understands, it is not in moving on from a loss that heals us but instead incorporating that loss into our lives, balancing it as a practical reality of existence. 

“The Friend” shows that grieving is not a finite act. Like forgiveness (another of the film’s themes), it is a constant and protracted practice, a form of emotional maintenance. 

Similar to many films reckoning with loss and age, “The Friend” is squarely intended for an adult audience; its themes and language are both too mature for any younger audience. This film is heavily concerned with reflection, introspection, and growth, the new bond of owner and dog providing a hopeful sprig of growth amongst the proverbial ruin of their shared loss. “The Friend” certainly tips towards the heavier side of sentiment, with many moments of heart-tugging sadness. However, like in real life, the earnest purity of caring for a dog and receiving its affection provides a running current of joy and warmth that underpins any of the grief’s morosity. 

We hope you all will join us in shedding both tears and fur in “The Friend!”