Parents' Guide to The Friend

Just like Apollo the Great Dane, this doggy drama is sweet and simple on the surface, but more layered and depressed than you might expect. Iris is teaching her umpteenth writing class at Columbia University, the book she's editing was put upon her by her best friend, and progress on her own book is ruthlessly slow. To make matters worse, her best friend just killed himself, leaving his pet in her care, despite the fact that the giant animal doesn't fit into her apartment—or her life.

The Friend's story is complex, adult relationships are complex, and so is Iris. Through her writing class, the movie makes a nod to the importance of creating authentic female characters, and Iris is certainly "a real woman." She's the type of nuanced but not showy character we often meet in books, but rarely in film—and there's a reason for that. Iris isn't, on the face of it, particularly interesting. She's not a shrinking violet, but she is a bit unremarkable. She's the very nice woman you'd meet at a party and forget by the next day. At the same time, she's an unusual character—because mainstream movies so rarely center on women whose existence isn't in service to having or wanting a partner or children. (Though, that said, her life does revolve around her male best friend: His friends are her friends, she's working on a book with his daughter, and now she's sleeping on the floor of her apartment to let his dog stretch out on her bed.) Dog lovers and New Yorkers are most likely to appreciate this quiet little tale, and writers may dig into the conversations it raises about the deeper meaning of scenes and dialogue, but most teens will probably find it a bit ruff.