50/50

How do you make cancer funny? How do you make any sort of terminal disease or disorder funny. I think that humor can be found in almost anything, and this film certainly tested that out. Inspired by a real story this film examines a persons struggles as they learn they have cancer and how they deal with it.

Adam plays things safe, he stays in perfect shape, he doesn't drive (to dangerous) he won't even cross the street until the little light tells him he can. So when he doesn't feel well, and goes to the doctor he is shocked to find out he has cancer. Over the course of the rest of the film it deals with all the stages of acceptance; anger, denial, etc. Of course though that is not enough, so a relationship dysfunction is added with the girl friend, and the parents. Road blocks are tossed in the way of the narrative to keep things interesting, and to make the story less about the cancer and more about Adam as a person, and not about the cancer inside him. He needs to change, because even before the cancer he wasn't really living.

I thought that the writing was strong, but much more so after the first 20 minutes. The beginning feels disjointed and hurried. Trying to get the characters introduced and developed and then introduce the cancer is difficult, it just felt like there were holes towards the beginning, and perhaps they didn't get past the cutting room floor. (I don't know what the deleted scenes were because Netflix DVD's wont let me watch that, super lame) At the end of the day though I do need to applaud the hard task of making cancer funny, and I laughed plenty in this, but more important to me, they didn't gloss over the devastating reality of what a situation like that can be like. I certainly welled up with some tears towards the end, the acting on all accounts seemed real, it felt authentic.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt puts in a strong performance as Adam, keeping the story grounded, and with his face reminding us that life is sad. When he looks sad, the whole world looks sad. Seth Rogen plays his cards much closer to the chest in this role. There is a lot less absurdity in his role, and a lot more reflection. I'm not going to go as far as to say that Seth Rogen is a good actor, I find him funny, but does he act well? Meh. This showed me that I think he could take on a more serious role and get away with it. Anna Kendrick as Katherine, the therapist is adorable. She seems to be type cast though as someone who is very smart, but naive. I don't know if that's good for her or bad. Other performances that made the film were Anjelica Huston, who only has a few scenes but makes her mark, and Bryce Dallas Howard who is so easy to hate in this movie.

It was shot in the same vein as a Judd Apatow production. The lighting and cinematography were strong, so it feels like a drama, there is no flat lighting, no dumbing down of the visuals to make it more palatable.

Overall it was a strong film, it had a few problems with making the writing feel complete, but a minor complaint in an otherwise very well made, and well told story. A good movie to watch if you're healthy, if you're sick, might hit a little to close to home. 8/10 stars.

Director: Jonathan Levine

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston, Serge Houde, Philip Baker Hall