50/50

***50/50*** is a 2011 American comedy-drama film

## Synopsis

Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis, and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.

## Plot

Adam Lerner is a 27-year-old public radio journalist in Seattle with girlfriend and artist Rachael, of whom best friend and co-worker Kyle disapproves. While Kyle is brash and outspoken, Adam is more introverted and mild-mannered.

After experiencing harsh pains in his back, Adam is diagnosed with schwannoma neurofibrosarcoma, a malignant tumor in his spine, and must undergo chemotherapy. He sees on the Internet that survival is 50/50. After Adam reveals this, his overbearing mother, Diane, who nurses her Alzheimer's-stricken husband Richard, offers to care for him but Adam declines, as Rachael has already promised to take care of him. However, Rachael is uncomfortable during his treatments and is often late to pick him up. She also gets him a retired racing greyhound as a pet, whom he names Skeletor. Throughout Adam's struggle, Kyle attempts to maintain his morale, helping Adam shave his head and openly using his illness to pick up women. While on a date, Kyle sees Rachael with another man at a gallery, forcing her to confess to infidelity; Adam then breaks up with Rachael for good. He starts to follow Kyle, using his illness to successfully pick up two women at a bar.

Meanwhile, Adam skeptically begins going to a young, inexperienced therapist, Katherine McKay, a PhD candidate doing the clinical aspect of her thesis at the hospital. Although their relationship and sessions begin unevenly, he slowly begins to open up to her. After she drives him home after one of his chemo sessions, the two develop a rapport, blurring their professional and personal relationship. She helps Adam understand his mother's situation and that even loved ones feel just as much stress as the patient, which helps Adam repair the rift between he and his mother. During treatments, Adam befriends Alan and Mitch, two older cancer patients also undergoing chemotherapy, who offer advice and smoke marijuana with him.

After Mitch dies, Adam's fear of his potential death and future surface as he's subsequently informed that he needs to undergo surgery. The night before, Adam argues with an intoxicated Kyle, demanding that he drive even though he can't. After a near miss, Adam breaks down and berates Kyle for seemingly not taking him seriously and using it for his own gain. Adam calls Katherine and tells her that he wishes he had a girlfriend like her, but also says he is tired and just wants it to be over. That night, Adam stays at Kyle's and finds a book entitled 'Facing Cancer Together' from their first trip to a bookstore where Kyle picked up the shop clerk—filled with notes, highlighted paragraphs and turned-down pages, proving that Kyle sincerely cares and has been simply continuing to treat Adam the same since pre-diagnosis.

The next day, Kyle drops Adam off, who embraces Kyle for being a good friend and apologizes for the previous night. After Adam says his farewells to family, he undergoes the surgery. During the wait, Katherine goes to the waiting room and inadvertently meets Adam's family and Kyle. After the surgery, Kyle, Diane, and Katherine are told that although the bone degradation was worse than they had thought, the tumor was removed successfully, and that Adam would recover.

Some time later, Adam is getting ready for a date with Katherine, while Kyle encourages him and cleans the incision on Adam's back from the surgery. The doorbell rings and Adam lets Katherine inside. After Kyle leaves, Katherine asks, "Now what?," and Adam simply smiles - at last being free of cancer.