The Friend trailer flips a classic dog movie concern on its head. Instead of worrying that the dog is going to die at the end, it’s the dog’s owner who dies in the beginning. The rest of the trailer, however, is pretty classic dog movie stuff. Naomi Watts doesn’t want to take care of this big dog! The big dog has destroyed her apartment! Wait… the dog is making its way into her heart. Maybe the dog was actually taking care of her the whole time? (Maybe not: “I guess I saw it the other way around, like, I’m the emotional support human and it’s the dog that can’t cope,” Watts says in the trailer.)
Based on Sigrid Nunez’s novel of the same name, which won the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction, The Friend isn’t only a pet-bonding narrative; it also explores the grief of losing a friend to suicide. Per the synopsis, the film follows Watts as Iris, who “finds her comfortable New York life upended when her friend and mentor Walter (Bill Murray) bequeaths her his Great Dane, Apollo. The regal yet intractable beast is a constant reminder of Walter and causes various problems— yet as Iris bonds with Apollo, she begins to cope with her past, her lost friend, and her own creative inner life.”
The Friend previously premiered at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival and later screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The film, which is co-written and co-directed by David Siegel and Scott McGehee, also stars Carla Gugino, Constance Wu, and Noma Dumezweni as the womanizing Walter’s trio of ex-wives and Sarah Pidgeon as his adult daughter. The ensemble cast also includes Ann Dowd, Felix Solis, Owen Teague, and—as The Friend trailer helpfully credits—Bing the dog. The movie will premiere in limited release on March 21 before expanding wide on April 4.
