'Our Friend' review: An ode to friendship amid despair and loss
Jason Segal and Dakota Johnson in a still from 'Our Friend'
Filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite's 'Our Friend' is not a typical Valentine's Day release. After all, it deals with something as grave as cancer and death of a loved one, but it sure celebrates love among three friends.
Based on columnist Matthew Teague's personal essay on his friend Dave Faucheux who came in to help him take care of his wife Nicole, the film is warm, heartbreaking and sad yet beautifully highlights the devotion of a loyal friend who put his life on hold to help his two friends and their children cope with a terminal illness.
Jason Segal plays Dave, who drops everything and goes to help his friend Matt (Casey Affleck) as his wife Nicole (Dakota Johnson) is diagnosed with cancer. Not only does Dave lend Matt his shoulder to cry on, but also becomes the proxy parent/friend for Matt and Nicole's two young daughters. Dave is there to fix lunches, drop and pick up the girls from school and shields them whenever Nicole collapses and is rushed to the hospital. But he never oversteps. When Matt and Nicole decide to talk to the girls about how grave the situation is in their bedroom, Dave stays on the porch, letting the family of four copewith the grief together.
The film's mood is sombre from the beginning and the narrative is non-linear as the story keeps going back and forth, revealing slowly how Matt and Nicole became friends with Dave and how slowly they got close. Dave is not the most ambitious person around and has had a spate of bad relationships. But he is the warmest person to be around, who is willing to go the extra length for his best friends.
As the family of five prepare for the inevitable, they all try to be brave but have to deal with internal conflicts and unwillingly prepare to say their final goodbye.
