"The day I die will be like any other. Only shorter." -- Samuel Beckett
Iris (Naomi Watts) is a writer. She was a student of Walter's (Bill Murray), who was also a writer.
The bare outline of Walter's life is provided in the movie, but not much more. He had three wives, multiple girlfriends, and retired from teaching, perhaps in disgrace. What his misconduct might have been isn't explained, but he did, we know, have a relationship with Iris when she was his student a number of years -- maybe 20? -- in the past.
Early in the film, Iris mentions that most student stories start at the beginning of a day, but few start at the day's end. Perhaps that's a clue for how this film starts, which is essentially with the ending of Walter's life.
I have to admit that the film pulled one over on me. I only watched this film because Bill Murray was in it, but his actual screen time in the film might be 5 minutes. This film is a vehicle solely for Naomi Watts and the Great Dane, "Apollo."
Apollo is the problem that Iris needs to solve. Walter's wife does not like dogs, and she asks that "Walter's best friend" -- Iris -- take him. That was always Walter's wish, she says. This is news to Iris, who doesn't even act like she's spent time with Apollo. I found this odd. Apollo is 5 years old. Since Walter found him, and it's not completely clear when, perhaps Walter hasn't had Apollo for the full 5 years, but he had him long enough that a "best friend" would know about him, would have seen him, and so on. After all, Iris was close to Walter, and she would have been to his house, she would have heard Walter talking about Apollo, etc.
But beyond that, I guess I found myself wanting to know more about Walter when that was never the plan for the movie. The plan for the movie was always Iris and how she would struggle to find a way to keep Apollo, and in the process, learn something about herself, jumpstarting her own writing to perhaps learn more about Walter.
Even what she might have written about Walter isn't clear. Originally Iris and his daughter were going to work together to collect a book of Walter's correspondence, but his daughter finished editing the book on her own. That might not have been terribly interesting to follow throughout the movie, but she had to sift through 30,000 emails, and the finished book looks like it might have been 200 pages. So which emails and letters did she end up collecting for the book? How many of the emails and letters were to or from Iris, for example?
What was going on with Walter at the time of his death? Did he have health issues? Was his death related to the "misconduct" charges? Did he have depression? Did neither Iris nor his wife have any idea about what he was planning to do?
It's not my job to rewrite the movie, and I guess the story of Iris and Walter's dog can be told, but I wanted more Walter, maybe just because I wanted more Bill Murray... but I think because I wanted more of Walter's life explained.
So yeah. Apollo is great in the film. Primo Great Dane actor. But I wanted to watch Bill Murray.
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Comments
Post a Comment