50/50

Just saw this at an Advanced Screening 2 hours ago in Huntington Beach

This film doesn't have a title nailed down yet. It used to be called I'm with Cancer but IMDb has it listed as Live With It. The title we were shown in the film and the title that was on the invite was Get Well Soon. They asked us our opinion of the titles (Also include was the title Bright Side) but no one really liked any of the titles. So for the sake of confusion I'll call it Get Well Soon.

Get Well Soon is the very believable story of Adam, a 27 year old nice guy who waits at cross walks at 5:30 in the morning when nobody is on the road and other joggers have already trotted past. Adam writes stories for radio programs and seems to genuinely care about the stories and the people who are listening to them. After persistent back pain, Adam goes to the doctor and is diagnosed with Cancer. He is assigned Katherine, a doctorate student who is getting experience for her dissertation, to talk to about his new problems.

This film will immediately draw comparisons to 2009's Funny People which unfortunately can't be ignored. But fortunately, aside from the fact the main character is diagnosed with a terminal illness, this is a completely different film. Where Funny People had a lack of connection with its main character, due to Adam Sandler being a prick to everyone and being rich on top of that, Get Well Soon's Joseph Gordon Levitt is the everyman that everyone can relate to. He does a fantastic job expressing the feelings of calm fortitude as well as isolation. You can see it in his face. It's the little things that make a film feel authentic. Levitt's performance is heart breaking and uplifting at the same time. He maintains a steady calm for most of the film that just feels real. You know this is a dark comedy when there is a Patrick Swayze joke in the first 20 minutes of the movie. I'm not sure if that one's gonna stay in the final cut though lol. This film is very funny throughout. All of the people in the after film focus group said it maintained a perfect balance of comedy and dramatics. I saw Love and Other Drugs and liked it but this film is much more streamlined and has no extraneous scenes.

Seth Rogen is absolutely hilarious. I'll be the first to get my opinion out that Rogen is great in everything he's in but he really killed it again. Weed smoking is given a fantastic treatment by this film, like director Jonathon Levine's previous work the very amusing The Wackness. There are two scenes that are a creative and effective way to show the effects of marijuana. I love the way they shot a conversation between Adam, Rogen and two of Adam's older cancer friends. Anna Kendrick plays a similar role to the one she played in Up in the Air. She does a great job in this too. Bryce Dallas Howard plays Adam's girlfriend and Angelica Huston is his over bearing mother.

I rated this film an "Excellent" which is the highest possible rating and which 18 of the 30 people who stayed after agreed with. 11 said "Very Good" and 1 said "Good." I really enjoyed the film. It didn't really do anything wrong. It might have a bit too much profanity for the older crowd but its central story is so appealing. On that note actually, there were several people who said they would not have come to the screening if they knew full well that it was about cancer. I feel that is so extremely narrow minded that no one should even admit that to a group of people. Please if you are on the fence and "don't want to go to a depressing movie" get over it and see a fantastic, hilarious film in Get Well Soon.

Greetings again from the darkness. The great Richard Pryor had a portion of his act dedicated to having a heart attack, based on his real life experience. I guess if he can generate laughter from a coronary, there is no reason writer Will Reiser and director Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) can't view Cancer as Comedy. There is little doubt that the subject matter of this film will limit its audience, but for those brave souls who give it a shot, I believe you will find it funny, touching and insightful.

The film introduces us to Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is a very nice, very normal, very low-key guy who works at a radio station as a writer ... a very conscientious radio writer. Adam experiences a nagging pain in his back, which is unusual for a healthy 27 year old. After a few tests, the emotionless doctor informs him that he has a rare spinal cancer ... also very unusual for a healthy 27 year old. From this point forward, the film borders on brilliance at times.

Adam's girlfriend is played by Bryce Dallas Howard; his mother by Angelica Huston; and his best friend by Seth Rogen. Each reacts in different ways to Adam's diagnosis, but what's really interesting is not just how these people react, but also how Adam reacts. He moves forward in his meticulous manner, but all the while we know the emotions are brewing. We see this in his sessions with his therapist-in-training played by Anna Kendrick.

Seth Rogen's character is basically a carbon copy of his act in 40 Year Old Virgin. He spews profane one-liners faster than our ears can process. Despite the aggressive front, Rogen's character is a friend with a heart ... and one who doesn't hesitate to share his medicinal marijuana.

So while Rogen's character generates much of the laughter, the real treasure of this film is in the subtleties of each character in certain moments ... and each character has their moment. Many will compare this to Adam Sandler's film Funny People, which also starred Seth Rogen. But this movie has infinitely more depth and substance than that one offered.

My warning: brace yourself. My theatre was filled with tears and sniffles, with significant laugh out loud moments mixed in. This is an emotional, self-reflective film that will confound you as you inexplicably laugh while listening to cancer talk.

After playing a bad boy rocker with a full head of hair, Joseph Gordon-Levitt now plays a nervous Cancer-patient with no hair at all. 50/50 is loosely based on the story of Will Reiser, who wrote this film, and is telling us his story and struggle through the character Adam.

Adam is played by Levitt, a marvelous actor who is continuing his string of quirky, yet well made independent films where he plays an off-the-wall protagonist. Adam is twenty-seven and works for a Seattle radio company. He is informed that he has a rare form of Cancer called Neurofibrosarcoma, and is told he only has a 50% chance of living with it. Frustrated, but moving day by day in a seemingly calm manner with his buddy Kyle (Rogen), Adam continues his long journey only to be bothered by his annoying, self-centered girlfriend (Howard) frequently. Through thick and thin, Adam starts to cope with his disease and manages to stay calm for most of the picture.

We all have to die at one point. It's part of the life. But I can't imagine the sadness and calamity brought upon someone who finds out they have a rare form of Cancer and that their chances of living are fifty-fifty. At twenty-seven nonetheless. My mother, who has work in a Chemotherapy unit for about a decade, said that the youngest she has even seen someone die from Cancer is two and a half years old. Some people, hardly get to experience life at firsthand because of Cancer.

There are so many forms of Cancer, rare and common, harmless and not, that your chances of getting it are very high. Getting it is at random, but coping with it is even harder. While 50/50 has a heartbreaking, and is sometimes emotion-testing and tear-jerking, it still has a strong comedic relief thanks to Seth Rogen, who is rather unfairly bashed in a majority of his films.

The acting is superb by both leads, the parents of Adam played by Angelica Houston and Serge Houde are portrayed effectively and in a loving way, and the screenplay and Johnathan Levine's direction never fails or works against this film in any way. Three years prior he was creating good chemistry between Ben Kingsley and Josh Peck in The Wackness. Now, he's finally mastered in creating two characters that do nothing but sparkle when on screen together. You can't really call this a Seth Rogen film because while his comedy is here, his underlying sweetness shows through the cloth of this film more than it has ever done before. The last time he gave a performance this well done was in Sandler's Funny People.

Thanks to a wonderful third act in terms of direction and screenplay, you get an all out emotional breakdown from the characters and yourself. 50/50 has a way with making emotional moments not seemed contrived, but welcomed. I think out of everyone in the theater, my mom was more emotional than the average person in the general public which is understandable.

Many films have come out this year, and many have been ignored. Comedies and dramas alike have been swept under the bus with other blockbusters in theaters at the same time. I plan on doing a list of the top ignored and underrated films of 2011. I hope 50/50 doesn't make that list.

Starring: Joesph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Bryce Dallas-Howard, Angelica Houston, and Serge Houde. Directed by: Johnathan Levine.

Mixing cancer and comedy doesn't seem like it should go so well, but 50/50 is a film that makes it work. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Adam, a 27 year old easy going guy who unexpectedly gets diagnosed with cancer. The film details his struggle to beat the disease and all the hardships that come along with having to fight a disease as crippling as cancer at such a young age. Adam is surrounded by various other people in his life that all influence him in different ways. Seth Rogen plays his best friend, Kyle, who always tries to help Adam out, but doesn't always know how to go about it. Anna Kendrick plays Adam's therapist, Katherine, whose attempts to help Adam cope with the cancer work at times, but at other times she just can't find the right way to connect with the grieving youngster. Bryce Dallas Howard plays Adam's girlfriend and Anjelica Houston is one of the strongest characters, Adam's overprotective mother. The film is a compassionate tale of love and friendship while simultaneously being a raunchy pothead comedy. The overlap is strange, but it works incredibly well.

There are so many ways to do a comedy film about cancer wrong, but very few ways to do it right. 50/50 thankfully manages to find the sweetspot of this risky terrain and succeeds in being a charmingly touching film as well as a wildly hilarious one. The writer of the film, Will Reiser, based the film on his own experiences with fighting and beating cancer at a young age, and his passion and understanding of this story shine beautifully through the film and its characters which surely all resemble Reiser's own friends and family in some way. 50/50 doesn't lean too far to either side of the comedy versus drama spectrum and it always maintains a consistent level of heartwarming hilarity balanced with touching sincerity. The drama and comedy weave in and out of each other perfectly and seamlessly with neither genre feeling inappropriate or out of place. It is sincere filmmaking at its finest.

Moreover, 50/50 just does a great job with its balance of genres, but also with the overall story and the great characters within that story. We grow such passionate empathy for Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a way I never thought could be possible. The film draws us into his troubled world so well and we are rooting for him all the way, cheering on his every move and growing more and more attached to him with every passing moment. We also grow to love the supporting cast who, with the exception of one particular character but I won't spoil anything, support Adam through all his hard times. The characters are all so well written and they play their key roles in Adam's life perfectly. 50/50 is a movie structured to where every character serves a major purpose in furthering Adam's development as well as the development of the plot. And so as we watch the relationships between Adam and the people in his life grow and fade we develop a deeper understanding of his character, making 50/50 an incredibly human story.

It's always nice to be so surprised by a film's quality. I expected good things from 50/50 from the first time I saw a trailer, but the movie itself exceeded my expectations. It is what the dramady subgenre is all about. It is a film tailor made to be the subgenre's posterchild. I laughed, I lamented, and I was brought close to tears at how heartwarming and touching of a film 50/50 is.

How many drama movies about cancer treatment, with suffering performances and a true story of overcoming have been made and even became tiresome way? Well, the young director Jonathan Levine and Will Reiser (screenplay) found a formidable new vision of it all.

The film tells the story of Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a young man of twenty-seven years working for a radio company in Seattle. He is informed that he has a rare form of cancer called "Neurofibrosarcoma", and is told he only has a 50% chance to live with him. Frustrated, but moving day to day with a seemingly calm, with the help of his friend Kyle (Seth Rogen), Adam continues his long journey of recovery. Only to be bothered by his irritating, selfish girlfriend Rachel (Bryce Dallas Howard). But with the help of the, half embarrassed but very helpful, psychologist Katherine (Anna Kendrick). Adam then proceeds to deal with their illness and can remain calm during most part of the film.

There are so many forms of cancer, rare and common, harmless and that their chances of getting it are very high. Start is random, but dealing with it is even more difficult. While "50/50" is a moving, and sometimes it is emotion-test and tearful, he still has a strong comic relief thanks to Seth Rogen, and several occasions that Adam and Kyle meddle.

The film is a drama, that works as a comedy very well written. Some may find this a defect, but rather a quality. Adam throughout the film faces its situation near death in a lively manner. It's as if the film were telling us, "if it is your last minutes, let then be smiling!".

The cast is terrific, even comic, Seth manages to have an interesting dramatic performance; Anna Kendrick formidable as ever; Angelica Houston and Serge Houde as Adam's parents with great performances; but who shines above everyone is Joseph Levitt with a fantastic performance, proving to be an very promising actor.

Thanks to a wonderful third act, in terms of direction and screenplay that never fail or work against the film at any time, the public has an emotional breakdown all of the characters and the story itself and fantastic to witness.