50/50 (2011)
50/50 (USA) Directed by Jonathan Levine Written by Will Reiser Starring Joseph Gordon Leavitt; Seth Rogan; Angelica Huston; Bryce Dallas Howard; Phillip Baker Hall; Matt Frewer; Andrew Airlie
A strange blend of movie-of-the week subject matter and stoner comedy somehow works in spite of itself, due in no small part to a relatively light touch by director Jonathan Levine (The Wackness). The film is based on Will Reiser’s semi-auto-biographical/fictionalized script focusing on his personal battle with cancer. Reiser and actor/producer Seth Rogan were friends in real life, working together on Da Ali G Show in 2003 when he was diagnosed with the disease. Here, Joseph Gordon Leavitt plays Reiser stand-in Adam Lerner, a Public Radio employee in a bad committed relationship with girlfriend Katherine (Bryce Dallas Howard). Adam is a bit of a neurotic, a non-smoker/drinker, who worries about everything, a trait clearly handed down from his smothering Mom Diane (Angelica Huston). Rogan is Adam’s (surprise) stoner best friend/co-worker Kyle, who exploits the news of his buddy’s affliction as a tool to pick up girls and help him smoke more weed. While there is an unfortunate misogynistic viewpoint at work here that helps sour some of the more effective elements of the film, Rogan’s jerk-off character is funny, and the actor is always better when not having to carry the full weight of a film’s emotional center. Although Anna Kendrick’s young therapist Katherine feels like exactly what she is - a contrived screenwriting invention to give Adam a love interest and elicit expository dialogue in a more natural way, their relationship is sweet, despite the overdose of self-aware awkwardness. Saddled with a one-note character, Bryce Dallas Howard somehow manages to squeeze something interesting out of the girlfriend from hell, and Huston does well as the overly protective, burdened Mom, ultimately serving as the impetus for one of the main lessons learned. While the film heavily leans toward the relationship between Adam and Kyle, we do get several effective scenes with cancer patients Alan (Phillip Baker Hall) and Mitch (Matt Frewer) as Adam undergoes chemo, though opportunies for more trenchant inspection of the medical profession with the chilly, distant Dr. Ross (Andrew Airlie) go largely unexplored. While 50/50 might have been more effective as a film about a guy who gets Cancer and how the people around him react, as opposed to being melded into a comedic sensibility that feels more like Seth Rogan’s well established one, it is nevertheless an interesting handling of a difficult subject matter.