By Matthew Clyburn
Strangely enough, 50/50 is not Seth Rogen’s first cancer-centric comedy. However this is the first one that he was directly involved in off-screen.
If you go back through Rogen’s career just two years on IMDb, you’ll see that he was a supporting player in Adam Sandler’s Funny People in 2009. Funny People was an idea with lots of potential, but ultimately poor delivery. As with most Sandler movies, the first half hour was funny and the concluding ninety minutes was filled with contrived sadness and awkward plot points.
This new entry into the cancer comedy genre is everything that Funny People couldn’t be: smart, well-paced and well-blended. In other words, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer, Inception) in a starring role and Jonathan Levine at the helm, 50/50 is a phenomenal film and nothing short of atonement for Rogen.
50/50 is not what the studio says it is. It’s not about two friends making light of a dark situation, it’s much more than that. This film tells the story of a relatable character living with a disease rather than dying from it.
This movie is based on a true story; Will Reiser, author of the screenplay, tells the story of his own experience with a life-threatening bout of cancer. Rogen plays himself as the friend of a mild-mannered twentysomething facing a rather grim prognosis. Gordon-Levitt carries the author’s narrative with the force and grace of a veteran actor. Rogen and Reiser are actually long-time friends and this film is based on some of their experiences together while Reiser dealt with his illness.
The astonishingly believable performances don’t stop there. Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village, Lady in the Water) plays Gordon-Levitt’s girlfriend with struggles of her own, among them fidelity and honesty. Howard, having moved out from under her father’s (Ron Howard) shadow and the grasp of M. Night Shymalan, has been consistent in several recent films. My favorite of her recent work is Hereafter, a Matt Damon flick worth catching up on if you missed it in theaters. In 50/50 Howard plays with ease a woman that is loved, hated, and forgiven by our main character and the audience.
Anna Kendrick (Up In The Air) takes on a new type of character as the 24-year-old therapist that Gordon-Levitt’s character sees during his struggle. A blossoming romantic tension and chemistry between the two hangs just below the surface throughout the movie, unleashing a brand of subtlety and care that few directors display nowadays. Levine truly saves the best for last by creating a foundation upon which to build our desires for these two complex characters.
Kendrick is definitely one to watch in the future. Her performance in Up In The Air was excellent, and this shows us a different side to her abilities that I can’t wait to see unfold in many films to come. She is everything we want and nothing we don’t; in a word, perfect.
While Gordon-Levitt’s character spends several hours in the hospital awaiting chemotherapy, he befriends two older gentlemen undergoing treatments as well. Played by Matt Frewer (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Dawn of the Dead) and Philip Baker Hall (Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley), the trio engages in a bit of pot smoking and a lot of sharing. The relationship built here extends beyond the hospital waiting room and one tragic turn in the friendship sets a foundation for the anxiety leading up to the film’s climax.
With all of these fantastic performances, it would be unfair to take any credit away from Gordon-Levitt’s approach to this role (perhaps his best to date). If you get a chance to watch the man in a non-character interview, you will see that he truly transformed himself for this role. We can each see a little bit of ourselves in him, and we should. This goes for everything the main character experiences: from laughs to awkwardness and from silence to a painful scream that serves as a vehicle for raw human emotion.
The laughs are interwoven respectfully and artfully as we digest this difficult topic; they are all in the traditional Rogen style, but with less edge. The directing and writing are top notch. As we roll into a time of year when many Oscar contenders begin to debut in theaters, I recommend you see 50/50. This understated comedy might surprise you with its disarming charm, and will likely turn a few heads during award season.
