The anguish of witnessing the terminal illness of a close friend or family member as it progresses from a medical threat to its most degenerative state is one of the hardest stories to pull off in a film without alienating the audience or plunging into maudlin sentimentality. It proves to be a bridge too far in, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, even with a cast as appealing as Jason Segel, Dakota Johnson and Casey Affleck.
His selfless friendship is the supposed subject of the film, though there is a lot of difficulty keeping it in focus. The story shifts back and forth in time, the years always measured before and after Nicole’s diagnosis. In chronological order, Nicole is a provincial stage singer and actress, married to local journalist Matt .
Their only truly loyal friend is Dane. When he learns that Nicole is in the hospital and sees for himself the disastrous state of the house, he offers to move into the guest room for a few weeks and lend a helping hand. This stretches into months and means leaving his full-time job in New Orleans as a store clerk and splitting up with his girlfriend Cat, who won’t accept a long-distance romance.
Less convincing are Affleck and Johnson in the Matt-Nicole relationship, which is fraught with suspicion and betrayal under the appearance of true love. Matt is described by his best friend as moody, selfish and distant; Nicole is subject to violent mood swings as her illness progresses. She’s resentful of the time he spends away from home to report from Lahore and Libya; he becomes furious when he learns she has a crush on her theater director.
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