50/50 Movie Review
50/50 had me at Joseph Gorden Levitt’s giant smiling face, and he smiled quite a lot for a guy with a 50/50 chance of dying.
Levitt’s Adam is diagnosed with spinal caner (by the doctor with the worst bedside manner in the world) and spends the next couple months working with a inept newbie shrink, dealing with a truly evil girlfriend, and befriending some fellow cancer patients (who are significantly older but much more into medicinal marijuana.
I’m not usually a fan of Seth Rogen’s stoner persona, but I’ll admit as Levitt’s life long best friend just trying to get his ailing pal some action to take his mind off the giant tumor growing on his spine he does come off as loveable. His hatred of of Levitt’s girlfriend sometime comes off as selfish, but mostly it comes off as endearly overprotective of his soft spoken friend.
Bryce Dallas Howard is really solidifying her position as the go-to cold hearted bitch as Levitt’s girlfriend who agrees to stay with him but does not rise to the occasion. From leaving him out in the cold after chemo to a general lack of warmth, she’s just not the kind of person you’d want in a crisis.
The film goes from good comedy with some pathos to a truly great film towards the end when Levitt’s character has to face the very real possibility he could die with a ton of things still on his bucket list. His angry breakdown and his apparent breakdown are raw and convincing.
The movie did lack any real tension, the early reviews made it clear they were not going to kill off their adorable protagonist (plus the screenwriter based it on his own non-deadly experience). Still it was funny, realistic, and did I mention giant Joseph Gorden Levitt face?
