A salty-sweet heartbreaking-heartwarming tragicomedy,

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2012)

False advertising: it's the reason why so many people are disappointed with so many movies. A film's trailers and television spots are what convinces so many of us to go to the movies, and if a film's advertising is misleading, it is usually anything but a good thing. I've never seen a falsely advertised movie have better end results than "50/50". The film was marketed as a laugh-out-loud comedy in the vein of "The Hangover" and "Superbad". It's nothing like either of those movies, and oh, was I happy about that.
First of all, I find very few gross-out comedies to be soulful and important. For the most part, they are just throwaway fluff that are impossible to be remembered. "50/50" is definitely more of a drama than a comedy, which can be assumed from its premise alone.
It follows Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a young man who re-examines his life after a terminal cancer diagnosis. His diagnosis is some rare kind of spinal cancer, and his chance of survival is at about 50/50. He intends to learn what matters in life, and to live every minute to its fullest, knowing that any one of those minutes could be his last. His profane and ignorant best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) and his young therapist Katherine (Anna Kendrick) supply him with optimism and humor when he needs it the most.
There has been a television show running for the past few years, with a similar concept called "The Big C", and this is pretty much that same kind of story. I love "The Big C", I think that it handles its difficult and horribly sad concept wonderfully, never making anything too dour or bleak, thanks to a much-needed sense of humor, however, despite being a fantastic series, not many people have seen "The Big C". What "50/50" is doing is basically telling the same story to a wider audience, and that's okay because of how strong it is on its own.
Being decidedly more a drama than a comedy, it has the pathos and dramatic flare that I expected, but it has a way of surprising the audience. It had me crying actual tears, and then laughing audibly a moment later. It's more dramatic than funny, although it is also very very funny. The most refreshing part was that it didn't try too hard to be a laugh-out-loud comedy. It appears effortless, but it definitely works.
Also, the supporting cast is dead-on. Anna Kendrick plays Adam's therapist, Katherine, a grad student working on her doctorate, whose third patient (ever) is Adam. Anjelica Huston plays Adam's overbearing mother, whose husband is dying of Alzheimer's. Huston gives a fiercely funny, yet understated performance. Bryce Dallas Howard is sure on a role. She seems to have a knack for playing terrible people. Between this and her role in "The Help" earlier this year, I wouldn't be surprised if her next role featured her kicking a puppy.
I think I'm a Joseph Gordon-Levitt fan. I loved his work in "500 Days of Summer", and he plays the easy-to-root-for everyman very well. I think Seth Rogen is funny, but he can easily be overkill. He plays the same role in every movie in which he stars, I find. However, he's clearly there for comic relief in this film, and he does his job fairly well.
I also have to applaud the script by Will Reiser, which is apparently semi-autobiographical. I think the right actors were clearly chosen, and everything fell into place from there, but this kind of film could be a disaster without the right screenplay. It shouldn't have been as good as it was, if I think about it. I don't know why I love "The Big C" as much as I do, but that and "50/50" share the same nuance and attitude about life and death, which I really appreciate. While not quite asking the "big questions" (reincarnation, meaning of life, etc), "50/50" seems very wise and very intelligent. It's the best case of false advertising in recent memory.
Grade: A