They say laughter is the best medicine, but it’s not an appropriate treatment for cancer, even though it has no cure. “50/50,” a dark dramedy about a 27-year-old who contracts a rare spinal cord cancer, isn’t being “jokey” at our expense. It finds laughs through blunt, direct practicality and acceptance of a bad situation.
Through the unfortunate plight of Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), “50/50” finds characters who address his cancer head-on and reveal themselves as the healthiest people of all.
It turns out the people in his life, his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen), his uptight girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard), his doctorate candidate of a therapist Katherine (Anna Kendrick) and even his overly nurturing mother Diane (Angelica Huston), all have their own life problems. Amidst them, cancer is just another bump in the road, and it does not prevent Adam from knowing just as much boredom, heartbreak, annoyance, depression, and yes, laughter, as he did before he contracted the disease.
He shares with all of them that he has a 50/50 chance of survival, and more interesting than how we get inside Adam’s head is how Adam gets us inside the heads of those around him. For Rachael, she’s not a bad person, but Adam’s cancer makes her sexually and emotionally unavailable. For Kyle, the news of cancer gives him a renewed sense of camaraderie with his best friend. His mother is warm and nurturing, but already a bit unstable. And in Katherine, who will develop into the love interest, she sees not a man dying but someone who can lend a helping hand and advice when for a therapist, the roles should be reversed.
Kyle and Katherine are the healthy ones in the ways they find to avoid the melodrama. They guide Adam on an unexpected, but ultimately more practical road to acceptance.
And their natural realism is shared by the cancer patients themselves. The great Philip Baker Hall plays a cancer patient who is not receiving chemotherapy for the first time. He doesn’t necessarily have to explain how or why, but we know he’s only allowed cancer to destroy his body and not his mind.
Will Reiser, a comedy writer who contracted cancer and lived, wrote the screenplay based on his own life experiences. One of his close friends during his fight with the disease was Seth Rogen, and Rogen’s Kyle is the sort of bromance best friend with the down-to-Earth sensibility and sarcasm that wouldn’t let a friend get too high and mighty or too pitiful. He provides the “knock yourself out of it and get yourself laid” mentality that from my experience governs a lot of male friendships.
Rogen is at his best since “Knocked Up,” portraying a fully rounded character that’s jokingly harsh and judgmental without being vindictive or overly vulgar. He has a hilarious and terrific chemistry with every character placed in front of him and finds ways to earn laughs in the most taboo of places.
What’s most striking and welcoming about the film is actually how memorable it is. There’s genuine wit and charm in deliciously quotable lines peppered throughout “50/50.” They lay the groundwork of a stoner, pop culture savvy Judd Apatow movie without straying into situation comedy territory. The most blatant “comedic set piece” finds Adam shaving his head with Kyle’s filthy electric razor, but as good as that moment is, everything else is grounded with strong depth and purpose.
And the sunny charm flowing between Kendrick (“Up in the Air”) and Gordon-Levitt is a winning addition to the film all on its own. When someone like Kendrick is as warm, bookishly smart and cute as she is here, you don’t seem to mind that Adam at one point uses his cancer to get himself laid.
It’s that sort of grace and intelligence about “50/50” that makes you forget about feeling bad. It proves that being cynical and realistic doesn’t need to make you feel miserable.
3 ½ stars