From a slight cough to a tummy cramp, any sort of minor pain or ailment in the movie world always seems to have a fatalistic twist.
In the comedy-drama “50/50,” the pain is initial back soreness and the fatalistic twist is a malignant tumor along the youthful spinal column of Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a young radio editor who seems to be fine until, well, cancer. But at least it’s the web 2.0 version of a cancer movie, with the right amount of timely Facebook stalking references to totally “get” it.
Adam learns that he has a 50 percent chance of survival from Web MD (such is the case in the post-“Social Network” era now, in which people check medical symptoms on the Internet) and reluctantly starts to evaluate his mortality with the help of student-therapist Katherine (Anna Kendrick), who has the just the right mix of inexperience and therapist-patient boundary crossing to serve as his love interest.
Seth Rogen brings some Judd Apatow-style humor in his role as Adam’s best friend, Kyle, who is on the constant prowl to get him and Adam laid by any means necessary, even if it means shilling Adam’s cancer at the club for some sympathy sex. It is basically Rogen playing Rogen, with less chortling and more of a “young Seattle professional looking for a casual hook-up vibe,” which is so very 2011.
While juggling a relationship with his pseudo-supportive girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) and avoiding the worried calls from his smothering mother (Anjelica Huston), Adam begins a five-step process to let go of his set ways and deals with the situation at hand, which makes feeling crummy about the possibility of dying relatable to the angst-ridden college-youth demographic.
Even with the confluence of topical references, such as Kyle name-dropping “Dexter” (Michael C. Hall in real life) as being able to beat cancer, the film doesn’t seem like a pop culture oversaturation fest in the vein of “Juno,” but is instead a smartly-paced script that takes a breather from the self-awareness. Where the movie also wins is the casting of Gordon-Levitt, who has just the malleable face that vacillates from tired cancer despair to mealy mouthed sentimentality. Even when Gordon-Levitt is acting like a jerk, one can’t help but admire that face.
Writer Will Reiser used his own battle with cancer as a young man as the premise for the film, which saves it from the triteness of the average fatal illness movie. For instance, chemotherapy scenes are lightened by the comedic presence of medicinal marijuana, and the requisite head-shaving scene becomes grossly funny when Adam uses Kyle’s butt-hair trimmer to do so.
Cancer is terrible, but this film is not. If anything, this film shows that laughter can be the best medicine for beating the odds.
Email Jue at tjue@media.ucla.edu