Nobody knows how to deal with cancer. Yet at some point sooner or later, we're all going to have to, either first or secondhand. I've been there. Secondhand, I mean. It really sucks, man. Director Jonathan Levine's 50/50 is a comedy about dealing with cancer with your friend, Seth Rogen, based on writer Will Reiser's own experiences dealing with cancer and Seth Rogen. It takes its example very much from the Apatow school of comedy, dealing with painful or uncomfortable situations with humor, and balancing the dirty jokes with the sweetness.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Adam, a 27-year-old guy who gets a kind of cancer on his spine. It of course, turns his life upside down, as it would anybody that young. He spends a good deal of the movie in shock or denial, refusing to accept the possible outcome of all this. The movie follows Adam and the people around him as he navigates his way through chemotherapy and the eventual operation. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is good. He manages to sell the weakness and vulnerability pretty well. It must be awful going through chemo, all the puking and the always being tired and stuff. One thing that rang true to me was how lightly he closed a car door when he was getting in. I've witnessed that.
Rogen is his best friend Kyle. Basically playing a movie version of himself, as Rogen often does. He's pretty floored by Adam getting cancer, but he does his best to keep Adam occupied and cheer him up. Rogen is actually pretty awesome in this, it's one his best roles to date. There's a hilarious moment about halfway through where he calls Adam's girlfriend on some bullshit she's pulling.
The rest of the supporting cast is very nicely rounded out by Bryce Dallas Howard as Adam's girlfriend, who maybe isn't mature enough to deal with the situation, Anjelica Huston as Adam's overbearing mom, Matt Frewer and Philip Baker Hall as two older cancer patients that Adam befriends, and Anna Kendrick as Adam's therapist/love interest.
Kendrick especially stood out for me. She's fresh out of grad school and still working on her dissertation, not quite a doctor yet. Andy is only her third patient. It's fun watching her awkwardly feel her way through the therapy, genuinely wanting to help him, but also eager to try out all of her recently acquired skills on him. She makes all the mistakes in the book, including the whole getting involved with a patient thing. Although, to her credit, she does her best to keep a professional distance while the whole ordeal is happening.
50/50 manages to walk a narrow line very well. It deals with cancer and mortality without getting sappy or overly sentimental. It teeters on the edge sometimes, but I think it saved itself for the most part. It keeps positive and upbeat when it can, but it isn't afraid to take things into dark territory. As hard and depressing as things got, I still remember a lot of laughing and joking around in my own secondhand experience, to lighten the load. Thankfully, it isn't a tearjerker. I don't think saying it has a happy ending is much of a spoiler, since the guy who wrote it about himself lived to write it.
50/50 brought back a lot of crappy memories, but still managed to be funny about it. It feels genuine, personal, and emotionally real. The audience in the theater was really into it, even applauding at one point in the middle. I think this movie is going to have strong word-of-mouth going for it. There aren't a great deal of decent comedies out in the fall, especially since we're in that dead zone between the summer movies and the Award season movies, so 50/50 is a good bet.
