50/50 (2011)

WARNING

THIS REVIEW MAY NOT CONTAIN SPOILERS.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

As some of the more attentive of you may have gathered, my past two reviews were my attempt at bringing you all up to speed. I took two months off in order to move house as well as finish The Expositionist website and as a result I got behind with my reviews. My next review was going to be the final installment in the catching up saga, Red State, but instead I have decided to hold off on that for one more week in favour of reviewing a film that hits our big screens tomorrow. 50/50.

  

The undeserving masses would be regrettably forgiving for assuming that 50/50 is a comedy. The trailers for the film highlight the films more light hearted moments and advertise a cast that many would associate with many of hollywoods most recent attempts at comedy. I do feel I should point out however that 50/50 is a drama, not a comedy. If you're wanting to laugh away your tears, chuck down a beer and loose yourself for a couple of hours or even sneak to the back of the cinema to ignore the film while you clumsily fumble the sick crotch of your loved one then this is not the film for you.

50/50 tells the story of Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a regular guy with an escalating case of OCD who gets diagnosed with Neurofibrosarcoma Schwannoma which despite as well as being something that Blogger can't spell is also a rare form of cancer. Adam then has to go through the trials and tribulations of dealing with his disease with the help from his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogan), his estranged parents (Anjelica Huston and Serge Houde), his soon to be qualified therapist (The Twiglet franchises only worthwhile export, Anna Kendrick) and his emotionally incapable girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard). Needless to say, it's not an easy ride for Adam.

         

If I were to describe what kind of film this is I would refer you to the numerous "based on a true story" dramas that tend to briefly grace our screens every year. They're usually aimed at the middle aged, based on best selling books that your grandmother read and tend to carry slightly obscure titles like 'The Wright Eye' or "My Left Arm'. That is the ballpark within which you will find 50/50 but with the twist here being that it's aimed at a younger, intellectual audience rather than the parents of the younger, intellectually inferior and for my money it works a treat.

The balance between the films comedy and drama along with the near perfect pacing of the film lends itself very well to the attention spans and attitudes of our modern day twenty-somethings. The very smartly written script by Will Reiser is interesting, deals with the subject matter in a mature yet manageable manner while using a style of language that will ring true to any child of the 80's or 90's. The reason for this is most likely down to the script being loosely based upon the screenwriters life, something which undoubtedly contributed to the script in a way which very few unrelated script writers could have pulled off.

The direction has been handled rather well too. The Wackness director, Jonathan Levine shooting a film that pulls you in from the get go, forces you to relate to the characters and route for them right up until the closing credits. There isn't a single wasted frame in the film and that only happens when you have a good director who knows exactly what he is doing. It's probably not going to win him any awards but it has earned him my respect which in the scheme of things is way more important.

As for the acting it's a winning formula across the board. Joseph G-Lovitt has always been able to churn out great work and this is no exception. You totally buy into every emotion his character suffers and the performance never strays into any kind of over the top territory, it's subtle, realistic and worth praise.

Even Seth Rogan impressed me. Many of my more astute readers will be familiar with my up and down relationship with Rogan but in 50/50 we see a new side to the actors talents. Obviously, his character serves as the comedic relief for the entire film but Rogan balances his usual schtick with a more sombre, heartfelt side, something which was attempted in Funny People but no where near as successful as it was here.

A final performance nod should also go out to Anna Kendrick who has to carry what could have been the films more cheesey and cliched rom-com story aspect. Her solidly grounded performance however lends weight to the character and in turn scales back the love story in a way that has it add a background to the proceedings rather than compete with the films more important cancer thread.

I'm going to begin summing up this review now, because all of this praise is starting to make me want to throw up on and kill things.

50/50 is a great watch. I'll fully admit that it isn't for everyone, yet then it's not pretending to be. As a film it's not good for escapism or uplifting your spirits, but if your in the mood for a heartfelt, human drama with a kick ass soundtrack then I recommend you trip it down to your local cinematic regime and check this out. Don't cave in to Twiglets breaking down or those depressing dancing penguins, go see 50/50 and stimulate you cerebral cortex because lets face it, it could do with the exercise.

50/50 is more than 50 but less than 50 + 50, in fact 40/40 + 20 is...