Matthew Teague is a journalist who traveled to remote corners of the world in search of stories. He covered CIA agents in Pakistan, starvation in Somalia, double agents in Northern Ireland. But his greatest work may be the essay he wrote in 2015 for Esquire magazine, entitled “O amigo”. Teague dedicated about 6,000 words to the arduous two years he spent caring for his wife, Nicole, who learned he had terminal cancer at age 34.
The essay told the story of his deterioration and death through the prism of his friendship with Dane Faucheux, an aimless soul who came to visit the Teague family on Thanksgiving Day and ended up staying for two years to look after the couple and their two daughters. In addition to winning a National Magazine Award, the essay connected Teague to readers in a way that his dramatic reporting from Afghanistan or Sri Lanka never did. They shared their own painful stories with such overwhelming force that they were often “amazed” at the response. To this day, he receives passionate and moving letters.
Hollywood also called quickly.
And Teague, now 44, knew what to do. Two of his previous pieces were purchased by several producers, but no film was made. He swore that things would be different this time.
What he didn’t explain was how cruel Hollywood can be when a film comes out, an experience he’s still getting used to.
First, he tried to write the script himself. When that didn’t work (“I realized I’m very close to it,” he said), he became an executive producer and worked closely with writer Brad Ingelsby (“The Way Back”) to create a film that both described the realities of death and celebrated the life that came before.
Soon a picture of well-known actors (Casey Affleck, Dakota Johnson, Jason Segel) came down in Fairhope, Alabama, to portray the Teagues and Faucheux. Gabriela Cowperthwaite directed the actors in scenes filmed at the hospital where Nicole was treated and in a house just three doors from the Teague residence. (The family still lives in the same house. Teague remarried and now also has a 3-month-old son named Wilder.)
Alternating between the past and the present, the script jumps headlong into the evil of cancer and the banalities of married life, presenting a portrait of a family that is completely recognizable and frighteningly unique. Young women should not die of cancer at home while their young children are in the next room.
But fueled by both a deep reaction to his essay and his career as a journalist, Teague clung to authenticity.
“The essence of this is that I wanted my wife’s legacy and memory to be of enormous respect. I didn’t want to deal with it badly, ”he said. “And I have a mission to tell the truth about that time and everything that came from it.”
There are parts of Teague’s original essay that went directly to the screen: the doctor’s words when he revealed Nicole’s diagnosis (“It’s everywhere. As if someone dipped a brush in cancer and passed through her abdomen”), the friendship between Teague and Faucheux and Nicole’s death wishes (jumping into a fountain in the center of the city with all her family and friends, becoming the great marshal of her city’s Mardi Gras parade). “What she lacked in length made up for in height,” wrote Teague na Esquire.
The most visceral parts that partly made the essay so memorable have been omitted: specifically Teague’s role in the grotesque art of bandaging the wounds and physical horrors that accompanied it.
“There are things I can write about that people can absorb and discover to be honest,” he said. “Even so, if you see it on the screen, people will throw popcorn and run out of the cinema.”
However, despite his carefully calibrated work, success in Hollywood is never a guarantee.
The 2019 Toronto Film Festival accepted the film and gave it a spot on its opening weekend.
Sitting inside the Princess of Wales Theater, Teague was on edge with nerves, kept under control by sheer will and the help of a friend and fellow journalist, Tom Junod, who was also the subject of a Hollywood film, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ”, about his unlikely relationship with Fred Rogers.
“I was surprised at how excited I felt watching,” recalls Teague. “But what really surprised me was the audience’s emotion. There were many people feeling many things. So, I felt like I had done right for Nicole. “
Actress Kristen Stewart was seated behind him, and hearing her sniff was an additional statement that everything would be fine. There were audible sobs from the audience, a standing ovation and a hike to the stage, where the cast answered a series of fervent questions. “There was nothing but love from that audience,” said Teague.
But when he returned to his hotel room later that night, the first reviews from commercial publications landed like a punch in the stomach. The Hollywood Reporter called it “out of touch with the same emotions it desperately tries to evoke”. Variety questioned the idea of turning their “devastating essay” into an “inspirational collective hug.” In this review, critic Peter Debruge praised the actors’ performances, but wrote: “Much of the displeasure has been erased from the image, until what remains is precisely the type of dishonest and sanitized TV film, which does not help anyone’s version of death that inspired Teague to clear things up in the first place. “
Today, Teague is still irritated by these criticisms. Despite spending years in newsrooms and understanding the role of critics, this criticism in particular sounds unfair.
“I had just arrived from a room full of people who had never read the rehearsal, knew nothing about the rehearsal and just took the film on their own terms and found it very moving,” he said. “So, having my own story used to overcome my own story was really painful.”
Cowperthwaite also felt the ire, saying that the first assessments “simply took my breath away”. But the director, who has made four films, including the BAFTA-nominated documentary “Blackfish”, has more experience in dealing with criticism. “It is just one of the sucking truths behind our industry,” she said. “It never hurts, but I think the longer you stay in this creative world, you learn to metabolize pain more quickly.”
To Teague, the criticisms seemed unfair, but more importantly, he was concerned about the effect they would have on the film’s fate. Films like “O Amigo” enter festivals with the hope of securing a robust distribution deal, and early business reviews are of great importance when studios and streamers are determining what to buy. Would the film find a home with such a lukewarm initial critical response?
“I was in a panic because I didn’t know what would happen to this thing that is so precious to me,” said Teague. “Are we sunk? Will people have a chance to see this? “
The ratings have improved. At Vanity Fair, Katey Rich wrote that the film “finds a more careful way in the kind of story that often seems mechanical on the screen, regardless of how devastating it may be in real life.” Your Rotten Tomatoes score is now around 80% of fresh produce. And producer-financier Teddy Schwarzman said the film left the festival with four offers, although an official deal was not announced until January.
Delayed because of the pandemic, the film, now entitled “Nosso Amigo”, opens now on Friday in theaters and on demand.
Teague is using the experience as an opportunity for growth in his career as a journalist. “The brilliance of public criticism has helped me to become more aware of how scary and helpless a story subject can be,” he said in a follow-up email. “It’s easy to forget that, even for a writer who values empathy. Sometimes, even a brief story – or a hurriedly written review – can break someone’s heart for a long, long time. “
However, he also did not give up on Hollywood. The writer recently returned to the scripting game and adapted his 2003 GQ article on over-the-top war games in North Carolina into a miniseries called “Pineland” that is now being purchased.
“It is not a gentle industry,” he said. “But there is nothing about journalism – my first love – for hard blows.”