50/50

50/50_360P

source: 50/50

I feel a bit guilty being a dissenting voice on 50/50, as it tackles such a serious subject matter, and a has a very likable lead character. But in the end, there just wasn't much substance to this piece, until the final few minutes, for me to really invest in it. Most of the material in the script is dealt with the slack, off-handed "Dude, remember the time you got cancer? Yeah, sucked, huh?" type of way. The film works so hard to not be serious or over-dramatic, that it winds up with almost no drama at all. When a serious moment does arise for the character, a pop tune is inserted into the soundtrack, to make sure we as the audience don't have to sit with the pain and confusion that the character is feeling. We can simply zone out for a bit, while we sway to the music. Now, I certainly wasn't expecting "Terms of Endearment", or a super-serious drama, but I also wasn't expecting the topic to be handled in such an incredibly frivolous, predictable, and frankly, sometimes boring manner. The film doesn't quite work as a drama, and even though there is a few genuinely funny moments, they are certainly not enough to sustain it as a comedy. The plot itself is fairly cliché and predictable. You'd have to have never watched a film before not to know just about every development that will come to pass; other than the eventual health outcome of the Levitt's character. But frankly, even that was tipped off to anyone who saw the weeks of promotion in the run-up to the film where Seth Rogan speaks about the film being based on a true story. What basically saves the film in the end is Joseph Gordon Levitt's likability factor, and a very strong performance by his mother, Angelica Houston, who unfortunately, didn't get more screen time. Had the film focused on that, it may have been stronger. Seth Rogan's character seems only to serve as a device for comic relief, to make sure we don't get too down. The last part of the film ends strong and hits all the emotional buttons (it would've made a great short), but the majority of the film is basically another arrested development story, with Rogan's character acting like the affable, 12-year old boy, providing his fair share of * and weed jokes, that we've grown to love...or at least tolerate. This was surprising, after I'd heard so much talk about how different this character was from all his others. I'm sure it was very difficult, especially in today's filmmaking environment, to get a film about cancer made. This is likely why the director and writers tried to lighten it up whenever possible. But one can only dilute a potent cocktail so much before it simply gets too watered down to drink. Unfortunately, I will likely remember very little about this film, except for the end, which was handled quite well. For me, it just wasn't enough to make up for the insignificance of the first hour and twenty minutes.

As a cancer survivor who who went through chemo and radiation for lung malignancy four years ago, I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. In addition, I think Joseph Gordon Leavitt is an awesome actor. There are some great performances in this film, as well as one or two very realistic scenes (the isolation/alienation, the very real moment where he loses it in the car and finally proclaims he's 'tired of of it all'), but that's about all I could identify with. Chemo is an incredibly powerful (and, as Melissa Ethridge puts it "barbaric") drug. The longer you're on it, the more cells it continues to destroy, and it basically slowly kills you. I saw the character sick after his first infusion, and then doing quite well throughout the rest of his illness. The opposite is true; you get worse, not more functional, and weaker. Your sex drive plummets, despite the character's desire to find women to hook up with (although I admit, when he finally did, things didn't exactly succeed), as well as your appetite, your sense of taste and smell. None of that was portrayed. Lastly, the tumor that he had on his spine did not shrink from the chemo and continued to metastasize, which is a concerning response; despite his surgery being semi-successful at the end, there was no mention of the high possibility that because of its size it had a high chance of continuing to spread. The film gave the viewer the impression that because they were able to remove it, he was "cured," which was definitely not necessarily the case. The other glaring inaccuracy in the film is a typical Hollywood one: the therapist begins a romantic relationship with his/her client. This is considered completely unethical and would result in the therapist losing her license as a result; so if this was based on a "true story," it's definitely been embellished for the screen. Seth Rogen and Anjelica Huston were, as always, terrific. But I'd really like to see a Hollywood film made that portrays cancer as it really is. This is definitely not it.

'50/50' is a film that I really wanted to like but ultimately it was a complete bore and I struggled to watch it all. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen, I had high hopes as I really like both the actors. I have nothing bad to say about their performances but throughout the film you just don't feel any emotional attachment to JGL and SR is kinda just there for cheap laughs (not really laugh out loud moments, just some things that'll make you smile). The plot is a delicate subject but doesn't really draw you in. There just isn't anything happening and I found myself looking at the clock (sign of a boring film). I certainly wouldn't class this as a comedy, it is just a drama that fails to deliver what it could have done. Overall I was disappointed and wouldn't recommend this film. Shame because I like the actors and the potential was there. 4/10.

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a methodic twenty-seven year old writer of radio programs that lives together with his girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) that is a painter. His best friend is Kyle (Seth Rogen) that does not like Rachael and Adam is estranged of his overprotective mother Diane (Anjelica Huston), who takes care of her husband Richard (Serge Houde) that has Alzheimer. When Adam feels a pain on his back, he goes to the doctor and is diagnosed of spinal cancer. He researches in Internet and he sees that his odds are 50% of healing. He goes to chemotherapy and is helped by the twenty-four year-old therapist Katherine (Anna Kendrick). Along the treatment, Adam finds that Rachael cheats on him and he discovers how loyal Kyle is. Further, he realizes how much his mother loves him and he finds true love. "50/50" is an uplifting teen drama with a story that combines comedy with a superficial drama and romance. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen show a good chemistry and are responsible for funny moments. Anna Kendrick is never convincing as an inexperienced therapist. Donna Yamamoto has a minor but impressive performance in the role of Dr. Walderson. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "50%"

I thought this movie was pretty good; I laughed, I (didn't cry, but thought about crying), for the most part it handled its topic realistically and maturely. BUT there were three things I didn't like in this film: 1. The main character's dad having Alzheimer's. Great idea, and an opportunity for comparing and contrasting ailments, but it's totally undeveloped in the story and leads nowhere and is just distracting. 2. The girlfriend. She's first handled realistically, then out of nowhere becomes a huge jerk. It's okay that she's a jerk, and it's okay that she doesn't want to go to treatments with the main character: she's only human. But then she goes from a round to flat character and the butt of jokes. She wasn't given any room to develop: she became something to move the plot along, and nothing more. 3. The ending. No, I'm not going to complain there's a happy ending: I'm very glad there's a happy ending, that's fine. But tagging on a "love story" makes the whole cancer seem like a quest-narrative, a journey that our hero must triumph over to reach his one-true-love. In essence, it's equating cancer as a "character building" experience, and the hero has won his prize in a girl. That's a little simplifying. I've never had cancer but people in my family have and some have died and from what I can see cancer sucks. It ruins your life and everybody around you, it's slow, it's painful, it's a horrible way to die. It's not something you laugh off. It changes you. It's not something you go through and then at the end you wipe your brow and say "Whew! Glad that's over!" You worry it will come back. You've been through this painful experience that wasn't caused by anything you did, that you didn't ask for. It just happened to you, and it changes you. I'm not saying I'm not glad the main character is happy and alive at the end, I'm just saying it's a little Hollywood magic that he ends up with his shrink (the only person that truly understands him?) after going through this traumatic event. It equates being in a relationship as the prize won for "winning" the game of cancer. There's no winners of cancer, only survivors. Validating cancer as an enriching experience and manufacturing a reward for winning it is what makes this otherwise vibrant movie both stale and oddly preachy.

After playing a bad boy rocker with a full head of hair, Joseph Gordon-Levitt now plays a nervous Cancer-patient with no hair at all. 50/50 is loosely based on the story of Will Reiser, who wrote this film, and is telling us his story and struggle through the character Adam. Adam is played by Levitt, a marvelous actor who is continuing his string of quirky, yet well made independent films where he plays an off-the-wall protagonist. Adam is twenty-seven and works for a Seattle radio company. He is informed that he has a rare form of Cancer called Neurofibrosarcoma, and is told he only has a 50% chance of living with it. Frustrated, but moving day by day in a seemingly calm manner with his buddy Kyle (Rogen), Adam continues his long journey only to be bothered by his annoying, self-centered girlfriend (Howard) frequently. Through thick and thin, Adam starts to cope with his disease and manages to stay calm for most of the picture. We all have to die at one point. It's part of the life. But I can't imagine the sadness and calamity brought upon someone who finds out they have a rare form of Cancer and that their chances of living are fifty-fifty. At twenty-seven nonetheless. My mother, who has work in a Chemotherapy unit for about a decade, said that the youngest she has even seen someone die from Cancer is two and a half years old. Some people, hardly get to experience life at firsthand because of Cancer. There are so many forms of Cancer, rare and common, harmless and not, that your chances of getting it are very high. Getting it is at random, but coping with it is even harder. While 50/50 has a heartbreaking, and is sometimes emotion-testing and tear-jerking, it still has a strong comedic relief thanks to Seth Rogen, who is rather unfairly bashed in a majority of his films. The acting is superb by both leads, the parents of Adam played by Angelica Houston and Serge Houde are portrayed effectively and in a loving way, and the screenplay and Johnathan Levine's direction never fails or works against this film in any way. Three years prior he was creating good chemistry between Ben Kingsley and Josh Peck in The Wackness. Now, he's finally mastered in creating two characters that do nothing but sparkle when on screen together. You can't really call this a Seth Rogen film because while his comedy is here, his underlying sweetness shows through the cloth of this film more than it has ever done before. The last time he gave a performance this well done was in Sandler's Funny People. Thanks to a wonderful third act in terms of direction and screenplay, you get an all out emotional breakdown from the characters and yourself. 50/50 has a way with making emotional moments not seemed contrived, but welcomed. I think out of everyone in the theater, my mom was more emotional than the average person in the general public which is understandable. Many films have come out this year, and many have been ignored. Comedies and dramas alike have been swept under the bus with other blockbusters in theaters at the same time. I plan on doing a list of the top ignored and underrated films of 2011. I hope 50/50 doesn't make that list. Starring: Joesph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Bryce Dallas-Howard, Angelica Houston, and Serge Houde. Directed by: Johnathan Levine.

How does a filmmaker combine humor and drama in a story about a 27 year old man diagnosed with cancer? Easy: Just give them equal measure with the title 50/50 -- light treatment of a dark subject. Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has to deal not only with his own emotions when he is diagnosed, but also those of a close friend, Kyle (Seth Rogen), an inveterate partier and ribald quipper, and his chronically worrisome mother (Anjelica Huston). Losing his girlfriend, Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) along the way adds to the potential downbeat. Yet director Jonathan Levine and writer Will Reiser keep it all as upbeat as possible, not in small part due to Rogen's constantly funny chatter, which comes at just the right times as the plot gets heavy with cancer surviving techniques (the film turns out to show the way to battle: with humor). Of course, Rogen has had training playing a similar role in Funny People with Adam Sandler. No one plays a weed-smoking buddy better than he. Gordon-Levitt is also an actor who can just about better than anyone else play the soulful, endearing, slow-moving romantic as he did in (500) Days. As a cancer victim, he engages the audience in observation of a vulnerable hero, who fights with a serenity and equanimity that could be a model for those wishing to survive and those who wish to help. 50/50 is a comedy with compassion, a distant cousin to the prevalent bromances that rarely treat the support men give each other in times of real danger. Usually it's vacuous women who supply that danger and significant support. Hooray for the men this time.

Mixing cancer and comedy doesn't seem like it should go so well, but 50/50 is a film that makes it work. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Adam, a 27 year old easy going guy who unexpectedly gets diagnosed with cancer. The film details his struggle to beat the disease and all the hardships that come along with having to fight a disease as crippling as cancer at such a young age. Adam is surrounded by various other people in his life that all influence him in different ways. Seth Rogen plays his best friend, Kyle, who always tries to help Adam out, but doesn't always know how to go about it. Anna Kendrick plays Adam's therapist, Katherine, whose attempts to help Adam cope with the cancer work at times, but at other times she just can't find the right way to connect with the grieving youngster. Bryce Dallas Howard plays Adam's girlfriend and Anjelica Houston is one of the strongest characters, Adam's overprotective mother. The film is a compassionate tale of love and friendship while simultaneously being a raunchy pothead comedy. The overlap is strange, but it works incredibly well. There are so many ways to do a comedy film about cancer wrong, but very few ways to do it right. 50/50 thankfully manages to find the sweetspot of this risky terrain and succeeds in being a charmingly touching film as well as a wildly hilarious one. The writer of the film, Will Reiser, based the film on his own experiences with fighting and beating cancer at a young age, and his passion and understanding of this story shine beautifully through the film and its characters which surely all resemble Reiser's own friends and family in some way. 50/50 doesn't lean too far to either side of the comedy versus drama spectrum and it always maintains a consistent level of heartwarming hilarity balanced with touching sincerity. The drama and comedy weave in and out of each other perfectly and seamlessly with neither genre feeling inappropriate or out of place. It is sincere filmmaking at its finest. Moreover, 50/50 just does a great job with its balance of genres, but also with the overall story and the great characters within that story. We grow such passionate empathy for Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a way I never thought could be possible. The film draws us into his troubled world so well and we are rooting for him all the way, cheering on his every move and growing more and more attached to him with every passing moment. We also grow to love the supporting cast who, with the exception of one particular character but I won't spoil anything, support Adam through all his hard times. The characters are all so well written and they play their key roles in Adam's life perfectly. 50/50 is a movie structured to where every character serves a major purpose in furthering Adam's development as well as the development of the plot. And so as we watch the relationships between Adam and the people in his life grow and fade we develop a deeper understanding of his character, making 50/50 an incredibly human story. It's always nice to be so surprised by a film's quality. I expected good things from 50/50 from the first time I saw a trailer, but the movie itself exceeded my expectations. It is what the dramady subgenre is all about. It is a film tailor made to be the subgenre's posterchild. I laughed, I lamented, and I was brought close to tears at how heartwarming and touching of a film 50/50 is.