REVIEW: Frederick Gordon-Levitt Gives 50/50 a Fighting Chance

The planet needs more cancer comedies. But it might not require more cancer comedies like 50/50. It’s not too 50/50 is insensitive or dull or unfunny — it sidesteps all individuals potential defects using the delicacy of the very precise surgeon. On the other hand, the image’s delicacy might be misplaced: Directed by Jonathan Levine (who, in 2008, introduced us The Wackness) and compiled by Will Reiser, 50/50 never risks problem or shocking us so far as cancer position goes, however it does slot in certain pretty ho-hum non-cancer-related crudeness wherever it may. When cancer-stricken Adam, performed by Frederick Gordon-Levitt, shaves his mind with electric clippers owned by his closest friend, Kyle (Seth Rogen), you don’t need to guess where individuals clippers happen to be — the film informs you. But where 50/50 does succeed is within showing cancer — or illness generally — as part of existence, rather than just dealing with it as being a tool to create the dramatic weight swinging. The image might be so a lot better than it's, but it’s also the type of movie which makes you need to grade around the curve, adding extra points permanently intentions. Adam and Kyle are pals who operate in radio, the kind of gig that may have appeared wonderful job even two decades ago, however might as well be work carried out by dinosaurs (and I only say that ruefully). There’s no great buildup to Adam’s diagnosis, no overwrought, underlit “I found a lump!” preamble. His physician provides diagnosing inside a stream of jargon it requires Adam a couple of minutes to determine that the issue is a tumor mounted on his spine, and also the prognosis isn’t promising. It’s bad enough to suffer from your personal illness 50/50 appreciates just how much it sucks you need to help others cope with it too. Kyle, for just one, accepts Adam’s news by only half-accepting it. Realizing that Adam’s girlfriend (an icy, fluttery-eyed Bryce Dallas Howard) is under encouraging, he sets to get Adam laid, without discerning whether that’s what Adam wants — it’s that that’s what he thinks he’d want. (It’s a stride from the picture’s mindfulness that making love really causes Adam some discomfort, something which wouldn’t have happened to Kyle.) Meanwhile, Adam goodies his illness as business as always — what else can there be to complete? He starts his chemo remedies, where he makes pals of any age (one performed through the wonderful Philip Baker Hall) he attempts to dodge his clearly concerned but overbearing mother (Anjelica Houston, taking advantage of a mildly dimensional role) and, most considerably, he starts attending periods having a worked up junior counselor, Katherine (Anna Kendrick, putting her half-charming, half-awkward timing to operate). All individuals are stuff that real people might do, and Gordon-Levitt navigates them with techniques which are refreshingly unstrained. Plus, there’s just not a way around it: When you’d rather avoid seeing anybody get struck with cancer, you actually don’t need to see Gordon-Levitt struck with cancer — his youth has something related to it, but that’s not everything. Gordon-Levitt appears to be if he emerged in the womb a little concerned about how things would come out. There’s an aura of thoughtful nervous about him, that is a part of why is his careful smile so appealing and effective if this breaks through. Gordon-Levitt makes 50/50 worth watching, despite the fact that the unfortunate reality from the picture is the fact that Seth Rogen is definitely near by, ready to create a comment about his balls or his dick or blow-jobs generally. Just keepin’ it real, I suppose. However it’s time for Rogen to toss the overgrown schlub routine. Besides, 50/50 doesn’t need an overgrown schlub whatsoever. The small-tragedy of 50/50 is the fact that we actually can use a comedy, or perhaps a dramedy, or anything you’d prefer to refer to it as, that addresses — amongst other things — the way a severe illness might affect a man’s sex existence, or his prospects for romance. But we live at a time when sexual frankness usually means a lot of raw comments in the peanut gallery, disassociated from anything apart from their very own free-floating id. 50/50 falls into that trap instead of fighting off it, but the vast majority time still it shows its fighting spirit.