Story of a lucky man

Rating: 7/10 (25 December 2012)

This is a film, avowedly based on a true story, with substantial critical admirers; I can only say I found it charmless, shallow, smug and unlikable: a romance weepier about cancer with a very serious attitude. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Adam, a 20-something guy with a sketchily imagined job in public radio. Seth Rogen plays Kyle, his goofy skirt-chasing buddy and wingman. Bryce Dallas Howard plays his artist girlfriend Rachel. One day, Adam complains of back pain and breathlessness and the next thing you know he is diagnosed with a form of cancer that, he learns from the web, gives him a 50/50 chance of survival. However smart and savvy the movie looks at first glance, this is basically yet another example of sentimental Hollywood Cancer: Adam prey-emits the traditionally understood byproducts of chemotherapy by shaving his head and there seem to be no other serious symptoms,other than having to abandon sex with a super-hot girl in midstream because it's too painful. Rachel is aggressively dumped because she cheats on him, and Kyle is bafflingly exultant, actually encouraging him to burn the painting she gave him. Is that supposed to be funny and heroic? Rogen's character just looks boorish, ugly and misogynist. This film leaves a strange taste in the mouth.