I wasn’t surprised to learn that Adam, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character in “50/50,” is based on screenwriter Will Reiser. Adam has cancer, but he’s not an emotional train wreck — that would be the people around him.
When his young psychiatrist, Katherine (Anna Kendrick) asks Adam how he feels, he honestly says “Calm,” and she gives a textbook explanation for how shock manifests as calmness in these situations. But Adam insists that he’s calm, and I believe him. Certainly, if Reiser could write not just a movie, but a rather wonderful movie, about getting cancer, he must’ve maintained a certain level of calmness, discipline and unselfishness throughout his ordeal.
Helped partly by the fact that Gordon-Levitt is a generous actor, “50/50” isn’t so much a study of a guy with an unpronounceable form of spinal-cord cancer — although Adam is undeniably the main character — as it’s about the people around the guy with cancer, and about how we see a person’s true colors when a friend or family member is sick.
Adam’s girlfriend, Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard), is the one who talks the most about wanting to be there for Adam, but she’s the worst at it. She won’t go into the hospital with him because hospitals mess with her “energy.” Meanwhile, Kyle (Seth Rogen, in fine form) goes from being Adam’s work-buddy-of-convenience — having never gotten his license, Adam needs rides to work from Kyle — to being a true best friend. I wish Reiser would’ve toned down the crudely obsessed-with-sex nature of the character (Kyle uses Adam’s cancer as an icebreaker with the ladies), but I guess that’s hard to avoid when you cast Rogen. (Another small quibble: These guys work as reporters and deejays at a thriving radio station. Is there such a thing in 2011?)
Katherine is the type of girl who exists only in movies, and characters like her have caused many guys to search with futility for the real-world equivalent. (If girls like her do exist, they aren’t single; only guys in movies are stupid enough to dump this type of girl.) Adam is only her third patient. Early and often we get adorable little scenes that indicate she is failing miserably at Rule No. 1 of her profession: She cares for Adam as more than a patient. It’s not that Katherine won’t grow into a fine doctor, it’s just that the growing pains of this profession make for particularly cute comedy. For example, she’s working on touching patients on the arm, having read that it leads to a comforting effect between doctor and patient. But in this case it leads to sexual tension because, well, Katherine is adorable and she and Adam are obviously perfect for each other.
There’s also a nice turn from Anjelica Huston as Adam’s smothering mom; it’s also a nice touch that she’s taking care of her husband, who has Alzheimer’s. And in chemotherapy, old soul Adam meets two older patients with an affection for marijuana cookies — seasoned character actors Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer — who quickly become good friends and character foils.
Some might level a charge of “manipulative” when describing “50/50.” But with this topic, it’s hard not to be. And if it is manipulative, well, consider me manipulated. The movie starts rather slowly, but I gradually began to love all these characters (except Rachael, the one I’m suppose to hate), so when we get to the lump-in-your-throat payoff moments, they feel earned. And there are at least four outstanding payoff moments that I don’t want to spoil.
The movie doesn’t shy away from the obvious bad things about cancer (the nausea and fatigue from chemotherapy) or the less-obvious bad things (nobody comes right out and acknowledges that Adam might die). But like Reiser and Adam, “50/50” doesn’t dwell on the horror; it takes the time to show us the (relatively) positive side.
The film’s message is obvious, but it gets there in an appealing way thanks to the characters and standout cast: Adam may or may not survive this, but by the final act you’ll feel like he already won, because he has so many great people in his life.