50/50

I found 50/50 to be more milquetoast than the reviews I have read. I went into the film expecting a touching drama with witty comedy. There were some funny moments, but the story just didn't speak to me. It felt contrived and formulaic.

The story was written by Will Reiser, and is said to be based on events from his own battle with cancer. While I don't doubt that the script is heavily influenced by Reiser's own experiences, I found the characters and situations to be contrived and difficult to believe. Even if all of the events are taken as true or accepted as not true, the story itself was average. It evoked emotional responses from me, especially a few well-placed laughs, but felt formulaic overall. I actually like many of the films Seth Rogen has done. This one is definitely not his best work. I would take Superbad or Pineapple Express over 50/50.

Minor spoilers ahead: I agree with much that has been written about 50/50 regarding the premise. A romantic comedy about cancer? That just seems like an unworkable formula. While contrived at times, the overall theme actually works. The story follows two best friends who work for Seattle Public Radio. They are nearly "Oscar and Felix" in their extremes. Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has a love affair with his Swiffer products. He is ultra-clean and anal retentive about timeliness. His best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) doesn't take life too seriously. His whole world is built around trying to get laid.

When Adam discovers that he has a rare form of cancer, Kyle is there for him. Kyle also uses Adam's cancer as bait for potential female relationships. Adam's mother Diane (Angelica Huston) is a basket case who already has her hands full with a husband suffering from Alzheimers. His consumption with his own crisis causes him to take his mother for granted. In the meantime, his girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) who has promised to be faithful to him is caught cheating. This opens the door for a potential romantic encounter with his therapist, Katherine (Anna Kendrick). Adam outwardly accepts his condition, but is facing an inner struggle that eventually boils over. He is fortunate to be surrounded by caring people who are there to support him and help him recover.

I felt that 50/50 was uneven at times. The first half of the movie seemed to be a hackneyed coming of age movie that uses the pursuit of getting laid for some cheap laughs at the expense of Adam's cancer. I also never really connected with Adam as a character. I don't think it was Gordon-Levitt's performance, but it may have been a combination of his performance and the writing. The character seemed too disconnected from his own world to really connect with anyone else. As the movie transitioned from comedy to drama it also become more effective, eliciting a more sincere emotional response. The film felt less contrived and more heart-felt deeper into the script. The dramatic elements saved the film from being a complete flop for me.

I mentioned Gordon-Levitt's performance. He didn't wow me. While it may have been the character that was flawed, his performance didn't do anything to win me over. The jury is still out on him. I have had mixed feeling about his performances in Inception and Uncertainty and this film failed to move me one direction or the other. Seth Rogen was solid. I also enjoyed Anna Kendrick in spite of the lack of credibility in her plot line. While her character violates every premise of the medical profession (in a situation that a student would never find themselves in), she managed to be charming. Her character, in limited screen time, won me over far more than Gordon-Levitt in the lead. Angelica Huston was probably the best in an even more limited role. As a whole, the cast was solid but not exceptional.

The R rating stems from a number of sources. The film has plenty of vulgar language and seemed to have been more about getting laid than fighting cancer. The premise was designed to create some comedy, but it was sophomoric humor. It ended up seeming vulgar in spite of the context, which is part of the reason I found the first half of the film to be forgettable. The film also contains a healthy dose of drug use, albeit "legal." A brief sex scene did not show much in the way of nudity but was a bit awkward. The rating was probably fairly accurate. I would feel uncomfortable with an audience any younger than mid-teens.

I enjoyed 50/50 as a video. It just wasn't as good as the critics imply. (IMDb still has this film at an impressive 7.7/10). I have read rave reviews about the brilliance of this film and was sorely disappointed. The writing left a lot to be desired. Weak characters, cheap comedy, contrived scenarios, one plot line that was completely unbelievable and formulaic predictability were abundant. The second half of the film was like another movie, becoming slightly more dramatic and accomplishing a little bit of character development. However, it was not enough to make me call this film brilliant. It was average. It was worth renting or catching free streaming. But it was far from brilliant. 6/10.

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There are not that many "romantic" movies that takes a shot at it from the masculine side of things. This one sounded like an exception and mostly it is. A devastating message turns the life of a young man upside down, but at the same time forces him to evolve and examine his habits and relations.

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) lives with his artist girlfriend and he has a journalist colleague, Kyle (Seth Rogen). Adam is a easygoing, but introvert person while Kyle is his outspoken and more emotionally superficial opposite and he is constantly thinking of how to score girls and being critical of Adam´s sexless relation with his girlfriend.

Adam starts to have pains in his back and soon finds out that he has a schwannoma neurofibrosarcoma cancer tumor in his spine. He can look forward to chemotherapy and a 50/50 chance of survival if it does not metastase. They invite his parents to tell them over a dinner. His mother has an overprotecting approach to Adam that seems to always having been her approach to Adam, who is half-seriously telling her not to.

Kyle has a generally immature approach to the world and figures that if Adam has a limited time left, he might as well get as much pussy as he can get his hands on. And Kyle sees opportunities in dragging along Adam to bars to impress women with his "helpfulness" towards a sick man. He does drive Adam around all the time since he has no license.

Adam has started therapy at the hospitals with a young and cute female psychiatrist Katherine (Anna Kendrick). He acts rather passive aggressive and cynical towards her, while she keeps going with him as she has just started practicing and needs the experience. As Adam´s health deteriorates, he wants to be left more alone, but Kyle wants to drag him around. On a date Kyle sees Adams girlfriend being unfaithful with another man. Kyle shows Adams the pictures later the same evening and Adam decides to throw his girlfriend out. Kyle approves.

As Adams gets worse so does his relation with kyle who´s limited emotional depth, makes Adam feel more and more isolated and ignored. At the same time, Katherine starts to get feelings for him but his mental and physical state makes it hard for him to sense anything. But Katherine is persistent and hands him her phone number. Adam slowly starts to realize what she is up to and that he also has feelings for her, that he probably suppressed, because of his future. Adam lets out his anger in a sort of road rage in Kyle´s car and afterwards, he has in a way broken the chains of his old introvert self and realized that he has to be more direct and decide his life for himself. When his girlfriend comes back to lure him in, he unequivocally dumps her for good.

When the doctor finds that the chemo does not work, he has to undergo a serious operation to remove the tumor. There is a high risk of failure but it is the possibly solution for a hope of a cure. he calls Katherine to tell her indirectly that he likes her a lot. When the operation is over he receives the happy news that it was succesful, despite large interventions in his body that will take time to recover from. But he is in a state of joy and finally he is able to become the one he needs to be to start a meaningful relationship with Katherine.

It is liberating to see a "couples" movie that actually extends a decent amount of respect towards men, although there are still situations where the male-stereotypes and gynocentrism shows up. Kyle is there to make the relationship not too deep, so that women do not feel to threatened by male emotions and to confirm that men are either only thinking with their dick or are soft, malleable beta´s without a spine. But as Adams personality strengthens as his illness grows, his masculinity and independence grows with it and he is not afraid to put women in their place. That is surely refreshing.

The immature behavior of Kyle is the comic relief and i guess in a movie of this caliber he has to be there. And for a part like that, there is no one i would like more to play it than Rogen. He is perfect for this role and has this rather unique hunky geekyness that is a gain for any movie with a part like this. Gordon-Levitt is fine as Adam but he never really gets below the upper most layers of his character. Whenever it could go deep the story is not told but left to the viewer to guess what he thinks and feels. As with the ending he just stands there with a geeky smile and then credits. I would have liked a deeper exposure of his emotions during the escalating illness, instead of focusing on the characters around him.

This is in all a fine feel-good movie, that does not go very deep. It stays safely on the mainstream side of the street and gives you what could generally be expected. It does succeed in minimizing stereotypes and female pandering, and even goes for a masculine oriented theme. For that it gets a few points.

Rating: 6/10

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