Very good, but doesn't totally do it for me

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2011)

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is 27 and has a comfortable life. A job he enjoys, a semi-live in girlfriend, an uncouth best friend, an overbearing mother and a father with Alzheimer's. And backache. When the backache turns out to be a fairly nasty cancer, things get turned somewhat upside down., and 50/50 (which, he discovers on the internet, are the survival prospects of someone with this type of cancer) tells of how he, and those around him, deal with the consequences of his diagnosis.
Wrongly billed as "the cancer comedy", 50/50 is a drama in which there is a lot of humour. The cancer is never treated lightly, but it is also clear that reactions to it, and how someone chooses to navigate their life after diagnosis, are important issues - how you live is perhaps more important than simply dealing with the illness. One of the strengths of this movie is that you do not know what is going to happen to Adam any more than he does, and you genuinely care about him.
There are terrific performances in this film. Gordon-Levitt continues to build on his reputation for strong roles which are mostly outside the mainstream. Rogen plays yet another variation on his customary foul-mouthed oaf character, but manages to convey a touching and genuine love for his friend (even so, I can have enough slacker obscenity fairly quickly). Bryce Dallas Howard is good as Adam's girlfriend, trying to do the right thing but not very well, and Anna Kendrick is terrific as Adam's inexperienced counsellor. Anjelica Houston is pretty good as Mom, too.
There were times when I was very moved by this film, and I was often amused, but I didn't laugh out loud at all - it isn't that sort of film, no matter what sort of press it has generated. I have read very strongly positive reviews: while it is undoubtedly a very good film, I wouldn't rate it has highly as others. Perhaps because I have been lucky enough never to have personally had a friend or family member touched by cancer, it may not reach me on as deep a personal level as it does some others: I don't know.
It is nonetheless a thoughtful, human, and entertaining movie, and I recommend it.