Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- Dakota JohnsonNicole Teague
- Casey AffleckMatthew Teague
- Jason SegelDane Faucheux
- Cherry JonesFaith Pruett
- Jake OwenAaron
- Denée BentonCharlotte
- Gwendoline ChristieTeresa
- Reed DiamondPeter
- Isabella KaiMolly Teague
- Violet McGrawEvie Teague
Recommendations
- 80
Los Angeles Times
The film absorbingly shuttles back and forth in time, tracking key moments in the trio’s lives that not only illuminate their pasts but effectively prepare us for who Matt, Nicole and Dane become, for better and worse, when the going gets tough. It adds up to a skillful kind of mosaic that pays powerful emotional dividends. - 75
The Playlist
“The Friend” is successfully anchored by its three leading players ... The sensitivity of these performances, particularly from Affleck and Segel, offers a reckoning on sincere friendship and the limits of devotion that remains with the viewer, long after the days of waiting and the years of pain have finally come to an end. - 70
Screen Daily
A handsome, earnest drama ... This is a tasteful, respectful and thoughtful film about what it means to be a true friend in the darkest of times. - 70
Vanity Fair
It succeeds by sticking closely to the important specifics ... It’s a small-scale human story, precious few of which make it to film these days. It’s also, if you’re in the market for that kind of thing, an extremely effective tearjerker. - 50
IndieWire
An honest but insistently scattershot true-life tearjerker ... Most of the fault lies with the fragmented, nonlinear structure “The Friend” uses to approximate the flowing nature of the Esquire piece. - 40
The Guardian
While the screenwriter, Brad Ingelsby, does root us in the minutiae of the trio’s day-to-day, it’s never in particularly interesting ways, and over an indulgent 135-minute runtime, we gradually grow tired of them, often questioning exactly why we need to know so much about their lives. - 38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The resulting film, while sporadically affecting, is ultimately a slog of gooey sentiment and needlessly long death rattles. - 30
The Hollywood Reporter
Overlaying the drama with the false cheer of lively music and bouts of humor, the story feels out of touch with the very emotions it desperately tries to evoke. Neither tearjerker nor very affecting drama, it defaults to somewhere in the middle.
