Our Friend 2019

“The truth was that, after two years of suffering, Nicole finally felt no more pain. After two years of horror, the girls and I felt like we had escaped something. Molly told me that, for the first time in as long as she could remember, she didn't dread hearing me call from the foot of the stairs, because she knew I had no more bad news to deliver.”  Really emotional film based on a true story. The quote above is taken from the real article that this is based on. It’s beautifully written if anyone else liked this film a lot and wanted to check it out.  <a href="https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a34905/matthew-teague-wife-cancer-essay/" rel="nofollow">The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word - Matthew Teague </a> I wasn’t a big fan of the fractured narrative the film used in order to tell the story, I personally found it made it more messy and would have preferred if it was told a little more linear, watching the relationships grow over time and not jumping back and forth. The only instance of this I found really effective was the scene where they told the kids the mum was gonna die, this scene is played twice, the first time we stay outside with Dane and the second time we hear the conversation and I cried a lot.  Casey Affleck, Jason Siegel and Dakota Johnson, all great in this. Best performance I’ve seen from Casey other than Manchester by the sea and it reminded me of his performance in that which may be my favourite of all time. Jason Segel I am a big fan of because of how I met your mother so it’s always nice seeing his dramatic roles and seeing how good of an actor he really is. Love that guy. Dakota Johnson I wasn’t the biggest fan of but she really gave a great performance in this, the three of them really made the perfect acting trio.  The non linear narrative definitely made me enjoy the film a little less. But it was still an emotional story that had me in the feels. Pretty nice ending, I like the emphasis on the friend in the story, he did so much and the focus on him instead of just the main two characters who were already driving the emotional side of the story forward pretty well. He stuck with it the whole time and put up with so much and the appreciation of that when it was all over was quite nice.  Yeah good film, felt very long, could have been better, but a sad true story that was told well.  7.4/10 Interestingly just read the director of this film is named Gabriela Cowperthwaite. She directed Blackfish, one of my favourite documentaries. Cowperthwaite *