There’s a certain irony to this in media res prologue—one that will be clear to anyone who’s read the source material, Matthew Teague’s “The Friend: Love Is Not A Big Enough Word.” In his prizewinning essay, published in Esquire in 2015, the journalist recounts the time he spent caring for his wife after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and also how his best friend, Dane Faucheux, moved in to help out during this impossible crucible for the family.

Our Friend is not that film.

As the title suggests, the focus is partially on Dane (Jason Segel), a close college friend of the couple who offers to come stay at their Alabama home for a few days after Nicole’s diagnosis—an arrangement that became indefinite, as those days bled into weeks and then months and then more than a year, Dane basically pausing (if not outright abandoning) his life in New Orleans to help look after their two daughters, Molly (Isabella Kai) and Evangeline (Violet McGraw).

It’s no surprise, perhaps, that Our Friend hits its stride when centering the relationship between Dane and Matt, finding conflict at its origins (the false alarm of romantic competition) and in its margins.

The film fares best when at its most specific, zeroing in on the dismaying inevitability of well-meaning friends disappearing when the going gets tough or moments of casual tragedy, like Matt taking note of what braiding is in anticipation of having to do that for his daughter.

It’s undignified.” But Our Friend spares us the gory details at almost every turn, cleaning up a story whose power stemmed, heavily, from its willingness to be gruelingly truthful about what cancer can do to the body

It’s as good a metaphor as any for the way Our Friend softens its own blows