by Brian Kesler
'50/50' is an endearing film about real people and their struggle to come to terms with life's frailty. It's being touted as a comedy, and while it does have a heavy emphasis on comedic talent (including writer Will Reiser, and actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anjelica Huston), it is ultimately a raw and complex story of human connection.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Adam, who's been feeling a little sick. He goes for a checkup, expecting some simple advice: exercise, eat healthy, etc. He waits patiently, nonchalantly, for the results. The doctor enters, sits, and - so riddled with technicality and inhumanity - absentmindedly discusses the diagnoses into a recorder, stoic and expressionless. You'd expect a doctor to give weight to such disastrous news by preparing the patient ... comforting them. But, in an attempt to avoid human interaction, the doctor merely tells his recorder, without a glance at Adam, that Patient 'A' has a malignant tumor in his spine.
Adam shouldn't have cancer. He's young. He's been living with his girlfriend for only a few weeks, he goes drinking with his best friend at night clubs, he avoids his needy mother and can't bear to see his Alzheimer's-ridden father. He's just started his career. He's a normal kid.
The way in which Adam handles his situation is intriguing. He doesn't wish to be a victim and refuses to let anyone treat him as such. He tries to laugh it off as funny, and suggests those around him do the same. He and his friend (Seth Rogen) shave his head with smiling faces, and use his cancer to score girls' sympathy and get laid. Only when he's in bed with a girl does he discover his ability for such pleasures of life no longer exist. Eventually, Adam becomes hostile and outraged. Why isn't anyone treating him like the victim he is? Why doesn't anyone care? His mother cares. She cares enough to call him everyday, offering to make him dinner. But, he never returns her calls or takes her suggestion. She cares too much. It's embarrassing. There's a psychiatrist too, played delightfully by Anna Kendrick (the girl that caught much attention in 'Up in the Air'). She's not really a psychiatrist, yet. She is working on her doctorate and Adam is just 'experience' for her degree. She follows everything she's been taught from her text books. She tries a little too much to show her patient she's doing everything her profession requires. She often touches Adam's arm or wrist. She doesn't do it out of genuine sympathy, she does it because she's supposed to. It promotes human connection. In a very funny scene, she practices different ways of touching Adam's hand and asks his opinion on which seems more genuine. She's not a terrible person, however. In fact, outside of the doctor's office, her interactions are heartfelt and loving. But, in fear of getting too personal, she backs off into 'professionalism,' which isn't what Adam needs. He needs a human connection with someone who understands him. The other cancer patients he sits with during therapy sessions are old men who were already on their way to the grave. Eventually, this inner turmoil and confusion culminates into a heartbreaking and shattering scene of self-torture and epiphanous despair.
As stated earlier, '50/50' is about tragic situations, the need for human connection, and the inevitability of death. But, don't ever think the film becomes sentimental or sappy. Each scene is handled with great care, in the way it is acted, directed, shot, and written. It is clear that director Jonathan Levine doesn't want this film to be about cancer. Any Lifetime Channel movie can be about cancer. Instead, this film is an intensely personal story of a young man trying to find himself through the midst of his own mortality. It is that distinction that allows the film to truly shine. When Adam goes into surgery near the end of the film and embraces his mother while sobbing pitifully, our own emotions are stirred, not because we know he could die, but because we've witnessed this relationship between mother and son come full circle. We've seen how opposed to emotionality Adam is toward his mother. His need to avoid her loving, yet smothering, touch. Only near his death does he release his pride and become a little boy who needs his mother desperately.
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