50/50 (2011)

Okay, so first we had Funny People, and now we've got 50/50, it seems like Seth Rogan is carving out a career playing the friend of someone with Cancer and helps them struggle through it. But whilst Funny People moved beyond the disease into love interests and unfortunately tedium, 50/50 stays with Cancer the entire film, and is all the better for it. The DVD case is also very misleading, stating that it is a Laugh Out Loud comedy - It's not. It's funny, but it's also incredibly tender and sweet (not sickly) and normally raises a chuckle or warm smile rather than belly laughs, something again that I would say was a positive rather than a negative point.

The Story is pretty much what happened to the person who wrote the film. Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) develops a form of Cancer in his back which gives him a 50% chance of survival. He goes in for chemotherapy, has struggles with his family, his friend and girlfriend and strikes up a friendship with his therapist, a very young Anna Kendricks for whom he is only her third patient. This doesn't sound like much, but the film is wonderful in it's subtlety, and instead of looking at an internal struggle with Cancer, painting the patient as a victim, or a hero, untouchable of criticism in case you infer that maybe they shouldn't survive. Instead of that 50/50 paints Adam as, well, human. He has flaws, he becomes very self involved, and the film chooses to look at how the illness is affecting those who love him; from his friend who seems to be using his illness to get laid, or his mum who becomes very clingy and annoys Adam, the film studies them and actually shows that whilst yes, the Cancer victim has the most to lose from the illness, they are definitely not the only people that are hurt by it.

Like I say, most of the film is not the advertised 'Laugh Out Loud' humour, and the closest we get to that is Seth Rogan, showing off his numerous cock jokes, or generally being a little crude. far from being a distraction from the main theme of the film, it is actually a natural relief from the glum nature of the rest of the film. To see someone who, at least on the surface, is still positive and upbeat about matters is both refreshing and welcome. Though he is not exclusively the root of the humour, the relationships that Adam has are very identifiable in one form or another, whether it is the mother who wants her little boy back, the absent father (unfortunately absent in the respect he has Alzheimers rather than having run away), the friend who is a bit of a dick, but at his heart he loves you dearly, there's all of these, but I found myself identifying with Anna Kendricks' Psychiatrist who is new at her job, but her job is vital, she can't fuck up, because if she fucks up then she ruins someone's life. Now whilst I am not even close to that situation, I recognise the feeling of trying to do your best, and the constant worry that you're going to mess up, and the effects that has for other people.

Like I say, this film is a comedy about cancer, so I hope you would expect a film like this. An intelligent film, a film that doesn't hold back on sentiment, but sugars the blow with mirth, a film that is honest and really very touching. I really liked this film, and It definitely made me think more about the people I care about.