It’s pretty rare that a poignant story about battling cancer, based on a real-life situation, is out and out funny, but humor is definitely one of the assets of “50/50,” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anjelica Huston.
The story is based on the screenwriter Will Reiser’s own experience with cancer and going through it with Rogen, his best friend, whose character isn’t that far off from the loud and brash ones he played in “Superbad” and “Knocked Up.”
As Kyle, Rogen sees the out-of-the-blue cancer diagnosis of his friend Adam, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt– who took over the role from James McAvoy– as a chance to pick up women and to get them to have the sympathy sex with him.
Let’s back up a few steps. Both guys, in their late 20s, work at aSeattlepublic radio station, where Adam is clearly the more serious of the two and enmeshed in producing a documentary series on whales. He has a girlfriend, an artist played by Bryce Dallas Howard named Rachael, who we find out is not the loyal, trustworthy type when it comes to dealing with a serious disease and standing by her man. She substitutes real caring by presenting him with a thin, mangy dog by the name of Skeletor, who looks as bad as Adam is beginning to feel.
Adam’s cancer diagnosis is the shocking result of going to the doctor to check up on some pains he’s had in his back. It turns out to be a rare and unpronounceable form of the disease, which requires first chemotherapy and then surgery.
Along the way, the audience is treated to an hysterical head shaving scene–and you’ll never guess where Kyle has used the shaver. In service to their best buddyship and his hatred of Rachael, he nails her in the act of being unfaithful at a gallery opening that Adam is too ill to attend. That leads up to a priceless showdown, complete with cell phone pictures as evidence, where you realize just how deep Kyle’s loyalty to Adam runs.
In addition to dealing with his deceptive girlfriend, Adam has to contend with his overbearing mother, in a brilliant turn by Anjelica Houston as a maternal force to be reckoned with, who in turn is also coping with an Alzheimer’s stricken husband, Adam’s dad.
And then there’s his medically appointed therapist, Katherine, played by Kendrick, who is so new to the job that he is only her third patient. You can feel your heart strings being pulled as the two spar with each other, even as Adam’s condition worsens and as his therapist quickly steps over the bounds of professionalism.
It’s these pivot points that give the film an emotional depth infused with humor that is probably only possible because we know that Adam is going to pull through.
In the end, it’s a life-affirming story for Reiser as well as for the audience—and a chance for Gordon-Levitt, best known for his roles in “Inception” and “(500) Days of Summer” to truly shine.
50/50, Rated R, Running Time 1:39
TAR Rating: 4 stars
