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Thursday, September 29, 2011
MOVIE REVIEW
50/50
When Cancer Is Defined As The Way People
Behave Around It
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Adam and Seth Rogen as Kyle in Jonathan Levine's
comedy-drama "50/50".
Summit
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Thursday,
September 29, 2011
When anyone, or someone you know in particular,
has cancer, what do you do or say to them? How do you comfort them?
Jonathan Levine's bitter-sweet independent comedy-drama "50/50" gets to the
heart of human behavior and discomfort, and does so with keen perception and
honesty.
Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a 27-year-old man
with a job and steady girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) in Seattle finds out he
has an unpronounceable cancer of the spine. He's given a fifty-fifty
chance of survival. Adam's best friend Kyle (Seth
Rogen) uses Adam's terminal illness as a chic fetish to
get both he and Adam more vigorous entertainments with the ladies.
Everyone worries about Adam, including his therapist doctor (Anna Kendrick).
All Adam wants is the truth about his illness and
for people to be straight with him.
As cleverly written "50/50" finds a balance between the
awkwardness of talking about its subject matter and the laugh-out loud humor
that comes with it.
The film manages to have its cake and eat it too,
without being too sentimental or romantic.
Mr. Levine's film minces no
words and each character's truth is real. Friendships and commitments are
tested not by illness but by strength of character and the courage to face
life's toughest tests.
Inspired by the true story of the film's writer Will
Reiser, "50/50" has an intimacy that absorbs you and a focus that's clear and
direct. Its comfort and familiarity are such that any discomfort that
arises is occasionally jarring, though never overwrought.
The film invests in a
keep-it-simple approach it never wavers from, staying true to itself and its
characters, one or two of which have an authenticity that's hard to deny.
Steeped in cynicism, ridicule and pop culture, "50/50"
knows when to say when. Mr. Rogen's exclamations and neuroses work well
for a film like this one, which will keep audiences off balance as to when to
laugh and when to stay silent.
Mr. Gordon-Levitt's Adam is
the quintessential maypole amidst society's anxieties around illness and the
attendant social protocol governing it. He's the object for others to
project off, and he sees through well-intended though selfish deeds, sometimes
to exclusion of the good things that people do, including his worrying mother (Anjelica
Huston, in a nice performance.) Mr. Gordon-Levitt and Ms. Huston are
terrific together as much as they are apart.
Adam doesn't pine for sympathy or overture, neither does
"50/50", whose title suggests a very straightforward exercise in behavioral
ethics. Either you get these imperfect 20-somethings or you don't.
With: Philip Baker Hall, Serge Houde, Matt Frewer, Andrew Airlie, Donna
Yamamoto.
"50/50" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for language
throughout, sexual content and some drug use. The film's running time is
one hour and 41 minutes.
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