I have been on a little brake of blogging for various reasons but it takes a little bit of Joseph Gordon-Levitt to get me inspired again. Not only did I watch 50/50 but I also took the time to enjoy something more special called Hesher. So in time you will probably hear more about the last one but before that a short review of 50/50.
Written by Will Reiser and slightly based on his own life experience, 50/50 brings you a story of Adam (Gordon-Levitt) who finds out he has cancer. Leading a healthy life up to that point, the idea of having this life altering disease is hard for him to grasp, not to mention for his mother (Anjelica Huston) who already is struggling with her husband having Alzheimer’s. As Adam battles with the idea and the cancer itself, his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) and his girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) try to support him. Adam is also obliged to seek help from a psychologist named Katherine (Anna Kendrick) who has her own challenge of being a young doctor.
50/50, directed by Jonathan Levine (The Wackness, 2008), is an interesting movie in a way that it has such a rough but still a simple story. It is a joy (from the movie-experience point of view) to watch and the fact that it is easy to connect with it makes 50/50 particularly good. While the whole plot is about fighting cancer and the struggles that it places on the person, the realistic aspect is brought on the screen by very good performances: Gordon-Levitt yet again does not disappoint and when his chemistry with Seth Rogen is best described by a scene where Adam cuts off his hair in front of Kyle, the most exciting scenes are between the main character and Anna Kendrick.
There are couple of moments in the movie where I laughed cause the whole scene reminded me of situations from my own life and I think it is the whole idea of 50/50. Those little moments where for instance Adam is cleaning out Kathrine’s car connect the characters with the audience cause while it is such a simple act it represents much more from the point of view of fighting something like cancer. I’m not gonna put a lot of ideas in your heads, because I think watching 50/50 has to be an individual process, but there are a lot of scenes which show (on some level) the concept of “being able to do something”.
There is no surprise that I liked the movie and it is definitely one of my favorites this year, so a solid 4 out of 5 suits this movie very well. I think this score might make more sense after I write/you read the review of Hesher cause at the moment I am comparing those two in my head (probably because of Gordon-Levitt) so the final score for 50/50 was a bit lowered due to this fact. So there is a little spoiler of the up-coming review of Hesher as well but the post will still end with some stills from 50/50.
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