50/50

Time Out saysMon Nov 14 2011

The lad-com gets (semi) serious with this tale of twentysomething Seattle radio exec Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who contracts a rare form of cancer, and the best friend (Seth Rogen) who urges him to turn his frown upside down and use his newfound condemned-man cache to pull hot chicks. Questions of poor taste are at least partly sidestepped by the fact that screenwriter Will Reiser was inspired by his own battle with the Big C, and although his script never fully gets to grips with the ugly, unglamorous reality of the disease, it at least has the ring of truth to it. The performances, too, are mostly superb, especially Gordon-Levitt in a tricky, often unsympathetic lead role. Elsewhere, the film runs into trouble: Jonathan Levine’s direction is sitcom-flat, while the script’s depiction of Adam’s flighty, unsupportive girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) turns from dismissive to downright vicious, a misogynistic streak also reflected in Rogen’s bullish, unlikeable turn. 50/50 is about right.

Author: Tom Huddleston