海角大神

Pity the poor actor who has to co-star opposite a 150-pound harlequin Great Dane. This is what happens to Naomi Watts in 鈥淭he Friend,鈥� except in this case no pity is required. She gives one of her best performances ever. The Great Dane is no slouch, either.

I should state up front that this is not a typical rampaging-dogs-and-their-frazzled-owners funfest. Loosely derived from Sigrid Nunez鈥檚 National Book Award-winning novel, and co-written and co-directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, it鈥檚 about coming to terms with grief. The comedic moments, and there are many, are laced with melancholy.

Iris (Watts) is a college writing teacher in New York who has been struggling to finish a novel. Her closest friend and mentor, Walter (Bill Murray), has taken his own life, and the suddenness of his death has left her bereft. It was Walter鈥檚 wish that Iris, who is single and lives alone, inherit Apollo, his 6-year-old Great Dane.

At first she flatly refuses. Her rent-controlled Greenwich Village studio apartment has a strict no-pets policy. And besides, she鈥檚 a cat person. But she grudgingly takes in Apollo, avoiding the nosy building superintendent (Felix Solis) until she can unload Apollo elsewhere.

You can see where this is going, although the route has many emotional circumlocutions. Iris鈥� despair over losing Walter, whom we mostly observe in flashbacks, is a pastiche of rage, resentment, and sorrow. A renowned novelist and notorious, thrice-married cad, Walter was also a world-class charmer. But his connection to Iris, once his student, was essentially inspirational, not romantic. This is what hurts her the most 鈥� she has lost a soulmate.

The omnipresence of Apollo in her life reinforces her sense of loss, especially since it鈥檚 clear that Apollo is also grieving. A worn T-shirt of Walter鈥檚 is his constant comfort. I鈥檓 always amazed when so-called experts claim that only humans can comprehend death. As a rebuttal, this movie should be offered up as Exhibit A.

I don鈥檛 know if one can rightly call Apollo鈥檚 performance a performance. But whatever it is, it鈥檚 heartfelt. (The dog鈥檚 real-life name is Bing, and thanks must go to his trainer, Bill Berloni, and owner, Bev Klingensmith.)

The filmmakers are certainly cognizant of the comic disparity between Iris and Apollo. When her friendly neighbor Marjorie (Ann Dowd) first walks in on them, she says to Iris, 鈥淭here鈥檚 a pony on your bed. A very sad pony.鈥� In fact, for a time, Iris sleeps on the floor because Apollo has claimed the bed. But the humor in their situation never devolves into slapstick, even when Apollo, left on his own, tears up the apartment.

In some ways, 鈥淭he Friend鈥� is like a serious take on the terrific 1989 comedy 鈥淭urner & Hooch,鈥� in which Tom Hanks plays a fastidious police officer who inherits a slobbery French mastiff from a murdered friend. The two films mostly couldn鈥檛 be more different, but what they share is an all-out embrace of the (eventual) bond between human beings and the dogs to whom they are devoted.

Given the pitfalls of gush and treacle in this type of material, 鈥淭he Friend鈥� is no small achievement. Is it impertinent to say that Watts has never had a better partner in the movies? The levels of emotion she brings to the role clearly have much to do with her co-star.

If I have focused primarily on Iris and Apollo here, it鈥檚 because those are the sequences that stayed with me. As for the film鈥檚 other aspects, despite a slew of fine additional supporting performances by the likes of Carla Gugino and Sarah Pidgeon, it dabbles in psychobabble. Iris has a grief session with a psychiatrist that spells out what doesn鈥檛 need to be spelled out. The depictions of the New York literati scene, with its backbiting and wary camaraderie, are effective but all too brief. Murray is well cast as Walter, but his scenes are few. And the film seems to end at least three different times.

For dog lovers, and for people who love intelligent movies about dog lovers, none of these faults may matter much. I鈥檓 in that camp.

Peter Rainer is the Monitor鈥檚 film critic. 鈥淭he Friend鈥� is rated R for language, including a sexual reference.