Movie Review: 50/50 - Melinda Bishara
It took me way too long to watch this movie, and I am so glad I finally did. 50/50 was inspired by a true store, and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogan, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dassas Howard and Anjelica Huston. JGL’s character Adam is suffering from back pain, he goes to the doctor about it and discovers that he has cancer, a type of cancer that has a 50% survival rate, hence the title. Rogan plays Adam’s best friend, Kyle, who is looking out for and taking care of Adam in his Seth Rogan way. It was nice to see Rogan play a supporting role, his humor did not take center stage, and did not take focus away from the plot. Adam’s mother, Anjelica Huston, is like every mother out there, she wants to help so much that she smothers. She brings a lot of reality to the part, and I can really envision many mothers treating their grown children like kids again under these kinds of circumstances.
The only thing in this movie that I wondered about, while watching, was why the make-up department did not make Adam look sick enough. Based on my understanding of what Chemotherapy does to a person, JGL should have looked less cute all the time.
50/50
is full of sweet and funny moments, which help make the sad moments
bearable.
One of the sweetest moments, for me, was when JGL and Rogan had a big fight. Adam had to drive home a drunk Kyle on the night before his big surgery and he is really upset about it. Adam feels like he could die during his surgery and his best friend is not taking it seriously. Kyle is knocked out on the couch when Adam finds a self-help book in Kyle’s bathroom on coping with cancer, there are a bunch of dog-eared pages, and Adam realizes that Kyle is suffering more than he is letting on.
The movie keeps you on a roller coaster of emotions, you are sad for JGL, then Seth Rogan says something to make you laugh, or you’ll have a moment between Anna Kendric, his therapist in training, and JGL that will make you laugh or pull at your heartstrings. There are so many nice things about this movie, and the realism is definitely a major one. They give the impression of what a real family in this situation might be like, or how a real friend might cover his pain for his friend with humor, it was not forced or unrealistic.
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