3.5/5 stars Cancer is one of those tragic life experiences most of us would share only with our closest family members, but Our Friend follows an outsider into this sanctuary of pain and fear, only for him to become a family’s saving grace. Adapted from Matthew Teague’s award-winning Esquire magazine article “The Friend”, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s film chronicles the diagnosis, treatment and ultimately the death of Teague’s wife, Nicole (Dakota Johnson), and the impact it has on the couple and their two young daughters. Rather than detail the struggle of a brave woman fighting for her life, however, Teague (Casey Affleck) focuses on their long-time friend Dane (Jason Segel), who put his own life on hold to help them through this darkest hour. Our Friend employs a fractured timeline, beginning with the couple breaking it to their daughters that Mummy isn’t going to get better, before jumping back 13 years to the night Matt first met his wife’s old college pal. Dane is unmotivated, unfocused and unlucky in love, while Matt is ambitious and driven, almost to the point of neglecting his family. Nevertheless, they become fast friends, and after Nicole’s diagnosis, Matt quickly realises he is out of his depth and incapable of running his own household. Dane offers to move in for a couple of weeks to help, and never leaves. Amid the school runs and the meal preparations he finds a purpose, and when Nicole’s condition leads to volatile and emotional outbursts, Dane provides a buffer between his two best friends. Movies about outsiders encroaching on a family unit can often take a sinister or erotically charged turn, as in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Theorem , Takashi Miike’s Visitor Q and everything in between. Dane, however, is closer to Mary Poppins, if the practically perfect nanny had just wandered in off a Judd Apatow set. Segel is perfect as the affable loser, willing to provide endless distractions for the children, bro down with Matt for some desperately needed laughs, and offer Nicole an emotional crutch in her darkest moments after her other friends inevitably drift away. Affleck is similarly well-suited to playing Matt the mumbling introvert, incapable of expressing himself anywhere other than on the page. Johnson is given less to do, but proves she can also convince as a victim who takes charge of her circumstances. Our Friend operates at a level of unabashed earnestness that is almost Ill-advised in these cynical times, but those willing to invite it in stand to reap the rewards of its power and poignancy. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook