50/50 Review

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jaskee_Hickman]Jaskee Hickman
Plenty of people (myself included) have probably known someone who's had to battle with a life threatening disease such as cancer. While some of us have known and been close to these people, others have had to experience these diseases themselves. Will Reiser is the screenwriter for "50/50″ and is one of those people who had to deal with a life threatening disease himself, while his real life friend Seth Rogan had to show support for him during his time of need. This film is loosely based on Reiser's own personal experience with cancer and speaks about a lot of things that people in these situations may go through.
Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a 27-year-old man who has recently started having troublesome back pains. When he goes to the hospital, he finds out that he has cancer. After telling his girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), his best friend (Seth Rogan), and hesitantly telling his highly emotional mother (Anjelica Huston), he tries to take this head on and in stride. Adam's mother is not only dealing with her son's disease, but she's also dealing with her husband's (Serge Houde) Alzheimer's and that just complicates everything even more. Through all of this, Adam is also forced to deal with life issues and finds out who's really going to be there for him when times are the toughest.
This movie will be classified as a dramedy. With that being said, it was certainly geared more toward the comedic aspect than anything else. The comedy in "50/50″ was amazing and insanely funny. Seth Rogan was at his funniest in my opinion and Joseph Gordon-Levitt more than held his own in all of the comedic situations that he was placed in. Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer managed to steal a lot of laughs themselves in their scenes as fellow cancer patients who become friends with Adam. The bottom line is that these two and the rest of the cast were flawless in delivering the comedy presented in the film. In particular, Gordon-Levitt did a wonderful job in depicting whatever the script asked of him. With this performance, he's continuing to establish himself as a great actor.
Despite the film being more about the comedy, the drama was still a very important part of the film. It was usually presented to the viewer in a very real and emotional manner. Not only that, but it came from a lot of different angles. Whether it was from the perspective of his parents, his best friend, or his girlfriend, the drama was shown through the way the people around Adam dealt with a disease that can affect anyone. It also showed how Adam himself had to deal with it from the time when he is first diagnosed and all the way through the end of the film.
"50/50″ may be the most innocent and delightful rated R movie that I've ever seen before. It was odd watching a movie that is clearly rated properly, be so uplifting and positive. In the end, I liked this movie a lot. Not only was it the funniest movie that I've seen all year, but it also stood only behind "Warrior" as my favorite movie of the year so far. With a smart script, good directing, and perfect casting, this movie doesn't have any negatives that I can think of and seems to hit on all cylinders. "50/50″ is not only a great film, but it's also one I can truly appreciate on a personal level. I originally thought about not even watching this movie, but I'm glad I did. This is definitely a film worth watching.
Score: 8/10
Rating: R
Director: Jonathan Levine
Cast:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Seth Rogan
Anna Kendrick
Bryce Dallas Howard
Anjelica Huston
Philip Baker Hall
Matt Frewer
Serge Houde
Film Length: 99 minutes
Release Date: September 30, 2011
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
Jaskee Hickman http://www.themoviepictureshow.com/
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