50/50 : The Review

cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anjelica Houston

Directed by Jonathan Levine

comedy/ drama

The minute you attach the term ‘cancer’ to a movie synopsis, rest assured you will find the project usually heading down for direct to television movies or daytime soap affairs.

However writer Will Reiser (who based the story on his own personal battle with cancer) comes up with a film that tries to approach this disease in a light hearted way. Or let’s say with Rogen involved, in a more goofed up manner.

Working at a radio station, Adam (Gordon-Levitt) is a young man in his late twenties living by the rule book. Does not smoke, does not drink, and does not even cross the streets until the lights come on. Even the man does not drive a car, because it has been statistically proven to be the fifth major cause of deaths.

So a man living such a calculated lifestyle takes time in coming to terms with the news that his doctor drops on him - that he is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Adam may not be able to even pronounce it right, but manages to find out on the net that his chances of survival are 50/50.

Initially he believes he can face it alone and shuns people away from his misery. He avoids calls from his mother who freaks out on learning about her son’s condition. He lands up with a therapist but does not seem confident that the young pretty thing would be of any significant help to his cause. However he does stick with his colleague Kyle, probably because he is the only one who wants Adam to have a ball while having cancer. And Kyle also teaches Adam how to use the cancer as a pickup line!
Yeah, keeps you guessing as to which is the real disease Adam faces- that of cancer, or that of Rogen’s Kyle.

Levitt- Rogen bonding works great as they provide perfect foil to each other. Levitt’s restrained and controlled emotions are a perfect contrast to Rogen’s uncontrolled fits of goofiness. Hand him a pack of marijuana, and Rogen would take anything and everything to his insane level. 50/50 proves to be no exception either.

Joseph Godon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer, Inception)  is not the most expressive of actors around and for most of the parts, his emotions are kept in check. However when he lets go, he can prove to be effective like the hospital sequence where he sobs holding onto his mother.

Seth Rogen is trademark Rogen. He keeps hopping between being the doofus and the annoyance with equal ease and yet successfully manages to remain in your good books at the end of the ride. How he does that is anyone’s guess. Thankfully, with the help of a single scene (the book scene at Kyle’s apartment), the director manages to add a lot more depth to the Rogen character.

The female characters however are more or less caricatures and there is little either Bryce Howard (the Help) or Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) can do about it, Only Anjelica Houston manages to make an impact with her cameo as Adam’s overbearing mother sharing a couple of important scenes with Levitt.

Director Jonathon Levine manages to balance out the laughs with the pains for most of the film’s running time, that is until the climax where matters rather fizzes out without going for a bold and broader stroke.

Levine never calls for slapstick or cheap humour to generate the laughs. Things are kept realistic to a large extent except perhaps when it comes to dealing with the medical profession. I have never seen weirder doctors and therapists like the ones on 50/50. As a comedy, one might overlook them but as a drama, they were sci-fi material. So you take your call.

50/50 has a tendency of playing things safe and being too calculated in its approach. That really keeps the movie from achieving its full potential. It remains a decent dramedy, but one that fails to take things a notch above. But it is an attempt that could have gone all awry…but thankfully 50/50 manages to survive!

rating:  3 outta 5