Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
After learning that his terminally ill wife has six months to live, a man welcomes the support of his best friend who moves into their home to help out.
Our Friend is an emotionally grounded drama elevated chiefly by its performances — Casey Affleck, Dakota Johnson, and Jason Segel all deliver nuanced, deeply felt work that anchors what could easily have been manipulative melodrama. The nonlinear structure adds some texture to the familiar terminal-illness narrative, but the overall plot treads well-worn ground with few surprises. Cinematography is competent and warm without being especially distinctive. The central friendship dynamic provides a modest point of difference from the standard illness-and-grief template, but the film remains largely within genre conventions. The ending is emotionally affecting though largely inevitable given the real-life source material.