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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        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
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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