Iris has had a long, complex friendship with Walter. Walter is an irresistible charmer, a brilliant author, a lover of many women, and a master at letting down loved ones. When he dies suddenly, Iris is left to deal with all he left behind — three ex-wives with unfinished business, his interrupted literary legacy, and his beloved beast Apollo. It's not that Iris doesn't like dogs, but this is Manhattan, and she’ll get kicked out of her building if they find out she’s pretty much trying to house a horse.
This movie contains 3 potentially triggering events.
The entire premise is a serial groomer kills himself after being fired for continuously assaulting his college (grad?) students. He leaves one of his now older grooming victims, who has maintained a bizzare life-consuming friendship with him over 20 years, his gigantic ill-behaved dog. Coerced through guilt, she allows it to dominate her entire life. But this is a good thing. Exactly “what she needed”. Dog is dying (but doesn’t die on screen), cry, the end.
One scene that shocked me was when she, casually reminiscing in the park, described being vulgarly sexually propositioned by him and then tossed and told to forget it. But she forgave him immediately afterwards. Another victim of his, who he married, says she envies her because she was wanted for more than just sex. This is good.
The most triggering aspect of this movie is all of this is treated as if it’s okay. His affinity for sexual relationships with his students/mentees is just quirky, and all of these scarred women orbiting him adore him in a way the movie expects you to as well. I would think I misunderstood, rewind, and see I had heard it 100% correctly.
This should be psychological horror. In a way, it kind of is, unintentionally. It’s pro-groomer Marley and Me. And although dog doesn’t die, it IS actively dying. Yuckiest movie I’ve seen in a while.
Has a jokey sequence in the intro around a dinner table, discussing about how a Hans Christian Anderson story is about raping a woman. Short, not exorbitantly detailed, less than a minute. Very unnecessary.
Also. The main guy you’re supposed to be grieving the whole movie is a groomer. So, it’s not explicitly stated. But a duck is a duck.