Mini-Review: 50/50 (Levine, 2011)
October 19th 2011 21:40
Mini-review: 50/50 (2011, Levine)
Written October 9, 2011
50/50 could have been a momentous failure. It could have been awkward, uncomfortably reflexive, and stunted. Instead, it is one of the year’s most enriching films. Based on screenwriter Will Reiser’s personal battle with cancer at a young age, 50/50 is an adult dramady on a subject familiar and close to so many. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Adam, a by-the-book, cautious kind of guy. From the beginning, the film divulges small hints at Adam’s character, circumventing the need for overt, weighed down exposition. When Adam runs, he stops at the ‘don’t walk’ sign even though there are no cars coming, watching as another runner zooms ahead of him. Regardless, he still stays put until the walk sign is on. Adam doesn’t like being a second late to work (a result of his best friend Kyle, played by Seth Rogan) and when he points it out to his boss in apology, he’s told the man didn’t even realize.
When Adam is diagnosed with cancer, he once again refers to his cautious world view: ‘I don’t smoke, I don’t drink… I recycle.’ The doctor’s delivery of the news is cold and uncaring and we watch as the world literally slows around our protagonist, becoming distorted and numb.
What is most impressive about 50/50, aside from its superb balance of comedy and drama, is the lack of manipulation and self-pity. There is never a scene in which Adam wonders why this is happening to him – there is never an instance of him actively complaining or crying to someone over his situation. The audience is not manipulated into caring about Adam, they just simply do. The film’s tone is perfect, aided greatly by a fantastic script and the natural chemistry between Gordon-Levitt and Rogan. The subplot with Adam and his girlfriend (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) is perhaps the weakest, as she is reduced to a characterture and a catalyst, and not taken seriously in any way, shape, or form.
The scenes with Gordon-Levitt and Anna Kendrick are interesting in their tone and awkwardness, given the dynamic their characters are meant to have with one another, but the evitable shift from a professional relationship to more ends up feeling a bit contrived.
Gordon-Levitt does a remarkable job sustaining the film’s tone and creating a character that is well-liked, relatable, and sweet. He is particularly heartbreaking a few scenes and with this kind of range has easily solidified himself as Hollywood’s finest young actor.
50/50 is amplified by a solid soundtrack, perfectly cut to the images and events onscreen. It also contains one of one of the best endings in recent cinema, masterful in its simplicity and lack of preaching or heavy-handedness. 50/50 really is a remarkable film in what it does, what it says, and everything it is and is not.
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