“Before this is over, it’s going to get hard.”
OUR FRIEND is the true story of lovable slacker, Dane (Jason Segel) who helps his two best married friends, Matt (Casey Affleck) and Nicole Teague (Dakota Johnson) deal with terminal cancer. The plot alone would make this a sob fest, yet to make it even more tear inducing, add two adorable little girls both having to process the grief for their mother.
What OUR FRIEND gets right is how hard and messy sickness is. There’s no way for home to feel like home when a terminal disease enters your life. Watching the Teague’s grapple with the inevitable elephant in the room reminded me a lot of my own family’s messiness when we went through a similar situation. Those quiet moments, especially led by Segal’s ability to play the troubled yet nurturing goofball, are what set this film apart from the other cancer movies.
The movie fails by jumping between time periods to reveal plot elements, much like a Christopher Nolan film. This is not DUNKIRK. A more linear plot would’ve increased empathy towards the characters as well as allow the two plus hour runtime to not feel so long.
It’s available on VOD if you are looking to have a “I’m not crying, you’re crying” evening.
