50/50 (2011) Review

Every few years Hollywood churns out a film about terminal illness. Most of all of them have one or more moments in the film where they nudge the audience saying, "Are you feeling emotional yet?" instead of hoping you do. Terms of Endearment, Beaches and the like are all guilty of this severe turn-off. 50/50 is not. What you get is a film that doesn't focus on the dark sides of an ailment. It's not an overly dramatic film nor is it an overly funny sitcom.

Adam Schwartz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is by all accounts a good guy. He's 27 years old, has a beautiful artist girlfriend named Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) and works as a writer of radio programs in Seattle with his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) who messes up Adam's life in more ways than one. Suffering from back pain Adam decides to get checked out. It turns out he has a rare form of spinal cancer which he has a fifty-fifty chance of surviving before Metastasis (after that his chances are less than ten percent). Left with no other options Adam begins chemotherapy and starts seeing a 26-year-old medical student/therapist named Katherine (Anna Kendrick). With the support of Katherine, Kyle and his overprotective mother (Angelica Huston), Adam manages to come to terms with his illness and starts to appreciate his life more, especially the things he previously took for granted.

Gordon-Levitt gives a particularly transparent performance that runs a great, wide range of emotions. At some points he is laughing with two other chemo patients and at other times silently contemplating his current situation and, in one particularly perfect scene, screaming at the top of his lungs and punching a dashboard. Here Rogen is quite good as well but is somewhat type cast into his role. I'd love to see him do a serious drama. Anna Kendrick's performance is a bit underdone but it's possible that she isn't given much to do with her role besides being the therapist.

It's not a "laugh-out loud" film but is actually quite dramatic with a lot of humorous dialogue, mostly from Rogen, thrown in. I get the feeling that the film was terribly marketed for what it really is. Don't misunderstand that. I'm not saying it isn't funny. It did have me laughing enough to be satisfied but, much like Woman of the Year, I see it as tragic above funny.

Good performances and (thankfully) few dirty jokes help to flesh out a poorly marketed film.

★★★1/2