50/50

Rating: 8/10 (22 June 2013)

I think what makes 50/50 such a success is the film doesn't ever feel like it needs to manipulate your emotions, as many a movie about cancer falls prey to, instead just looking at a life through a realistic lens from the perspective of a young man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) having to deal with a tumor growing on his spine. He has an obscene (but totally loyal) buddy played by Seth Rogan, always drunk, hitting on girls, and swearing (when not smoking pot and trying to convince Gordon-Levitt to go to bars with him), a sham of a girlfriend (played by Bryce Dallas Howard, stuck with a character so self-absorbed, with a personality ill-equipped for giving care and affection to someone in need of both, that she has no chance of escaping the "bitch we love to hate"; it does provide a moment of great humor when Gordon-Levitt tells her to get of his porch, soon joining Rogan in destroying her painting that once hung above the television), a psychiatrist working on her doctorate and a bit inexperienced (Anna Kendrick, becoming quite a character actress; if she could just avoid the "Pitch Perfect" films, I think the sky's the limit) who is becoming a possible new love interest, an overprotective mother (Angelica Huston, just wonderful) who just wants her son to return her phone calls (and make him dinner if he'll let her) he's embarrassed by, a father now lost to senility, and a couple of fellow cancer patients (Matt Frewer and Philip Baker Hall) who understand his situation all too well. Learning of the cancer (I think there's a great bit of cinematography here were the focus of the cancer doc's face (still speaking of the rarity of such cancer in someone of his age) eventually fades with Gordon-Levitt having to let this news sink in), cutting of his hair (with Rogen's shaver which could have been used for his body hair), dealing with a cheating girlfriend that abandoned him when he needed her the most (caught at her art gallery with a hippie by Rogan who snaps a photo on his phone), trying to avoid as much of revealing his pent up emotions to his psychiatrist yet finding her presence in his life a gradual help, facing the fears of dying and the eventual delicate and dangerous surgery, and ultimately blessed with a new outlook on life (and perhaps love). This is indeed uplifting but not in the usual Lifetime/Hallmark channel way; the dialogue is frank and profane, emotional outbursts (or scenes where Gordon-Lewitt is sick and too tired to stand) aren't overdramatized with a heavy score, and there's plenty of adult comedy that can offset the grim diagnosis that heavily looms throughout. Rogan is playing another version of himself; using the cancer to pick up girls, boozing and oftentimes drunk, blunt and viewed as obnoxious (and not without plenty of dirty jokes and salty language), this character doesn't stray from Rogan's comfort zone. Yet he's there for his friend all the way. Gordon-Levitt proves here, significantly, that he's among the best actors of his generation. Scary is I think he still can get even better.