Secondhand Reviews: "50/50"

Rated PG-13 for some strong language, sexual references and alcohol and drug use.

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From time to time someone will release a movie that takes a humorous look at some topic that makes some people cringe and take offense, claiming that this particular topic (whatever it may be) should never be made fun of. But using humor to deal with some particular problem is hardly the same thing as making fun of that problem, something many people seem to have a difficult time distinguishing. Certainly there can be fewer issues less humorous than cancer. Yet it is NOT impossible to tell a sensitive, touching story about the subject that uses plenty of humor. And director Jonathan Levine, writer Will Reiser (ESPECIALLY him) and their cast and crew have done just that with "50/50".

It's the story of Adam, a 27-year-old man who has just been diagnosed with a very rare but often lethal form of cancer, something he can't understand given his extremely healthy lifestyle. But he seems to be adjusting to having no more than a 50/50 chance of survival (hence the film's title) better than most of the people in his circle, in particular his mother (who already had to face her husband's mental degeneration via Alzheimers, and now this). With the help of his friend Kyle (who is always there for him even if he doesn't exactly give the USUAL kind of support) and his therapist Katherine, he deals with the situation as best as he can... which begins to get a little more difficult as time goes on.

Doesn't exactly sound like a laugh riot, does it? Well, of course not... nor is it one. This film is a comedy in a similar tradition to that of Robert Altman's "M.A.S.H." in that you have characters in a potentially deadly life or death situation in which they're faced with two real choices... learn to deal with the problem using humor, or lose it completely and just go insane. Adam's cancer is itself never the subject of laughter, but there's plenty of laughter in this film... as well as plenty of compassion and scenes that get uncomfortably real. Which is to be expected, I suppose, as the story is loosely based on that of screenwriter Will Reiser, who went through a cancer year not long ago and got through it using humor and with the aid of HIS support network, which actually included Seth Rogen, who plays the equivalent role here.

There is not a single weak performance anywhere in this film, but there are a few that stand out. Levitt proves himself one of our finest, and most under-rated, actors in a role that requires him to go from carefree young man to possibly doomed cancer patient, from laughing at his situation to despairing of it, to finally learning to deal. That you totally buy him every step of the way is just amazing. And Anna Kendrick ("Up In The Air") is a wonder as his therapist... just beginning her job and a bit uncertain and emotionally overwhelmed, but trying her best to offer real comfort and support. It's a marvelous blend of vulnerability and strength. Seth Rogen truly proves himself a real actor and not just a wacky comedian (though he IS also responsible for many of the film's biggest laughs), and Matt ("Max Headroom") Frewer and Phillip Baker Hall are utterly heartbreaking as the two elderly cancer patients that Adam bonds with during his chemotherapy sessions. That you can get to know and care so deeply about their characters even with the limited number of scenes they have speaks volumes about the actors' fantastic performances, as well as Reiser's amazing script.

This film is enough to make me wish that there were a "dramedy" category to classify this review... as anyone who's ever experienced cancer in the family knows, there's hardly any kind of experience that tests both the patient and their family more thoroughly, that puts them through the emotional ringer so intensely... and this film depicts that with almost too much realism. (Notice how Adam's devoted girlfriend, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, starts to detach from him once he gets seriously ill... it's NOT that she's being portrayed as a shrew, as some reviews suggest... it's just that this is the sort of thing that really does happen to too many cancer patients, as friends and loved ones just can't handle it and can't face up to what's happening.) And yet there's never more than five minutes or so at a time where you don't have a really big laugh as well, making this one of the funnier comedies of the year. If you think that's a contradiction I couldn't blame you... I wondered about it myself before seeing the film... but it blends it all together into a totally natural whole.

This truly is a movie that isn't like anything else that's in theatres right now, or has been for quite a while. A major studio Hollywood movie that actually attempts to be something unique, that deals with serious and life threatening illness in a way you often see in life but almost never in the movies, and that contains virtually the entire spectrum of human emotion? All of this is 2011, when the typical moviegoer is not supposed to care about anything other than things that blow up and cars that crash? Yes, it is possible. And given the box office of "50/50", there probably won't be a ton of imitators following in its path. But at least there was this one, and if you're looking for something a lot more real than Hollywood usually gives you, I'd suggest you check this one out as soon as you can.