50/50 (2011) Review

A comedy drama about 27-year-old Adam who find out he has cancer in his spine. With his best friend Kyle he must then face his fate, with a 50/50 chance of survival.

I had planned on going to see this film at the cinema but we were too late for the last showing and ended up seeing Dream House instead after watching 50/50 last night that has made me even more disappointed. I throughly enjoyed this film, it had such a great heart and very important messages from start to finish. I am 25 years old so I think I related to Adam quite a lot with him being only 2 years old than myself. It had me wondering what I would do and how I would cope and I think that’s a special thing for a film to do.

We see how having cancer pretty much makes his life fall apart as well, while he keeps saying that he is fine. Which is obviously not true, everyone needs a friend like Kyle as he really was there for Adam the whole time. I won’t spoil anything about the film and the ending but it really does have you on edge and I couldn’t work out which way it was going to go.

While having chemo we see Adam rebuild the relationship with his mother when he eventually realises that she only wants to be there for him. Played brilliantly by Anjelica Huston. Joseph Gordon-Levitt really is becoming one of my favourite actors and his performance in this is believable and he really gets you on side. Seth Rogan is also very likeable even if he character Kyle is slightly obsessed with sex, surely a normal thing for a man in his 20s though. He helps lighten the mood when it is needed the most but also involved in many emotional moments as well.

I have to say that this is one of the best films I have seen in a long time and I am sure it would have been on my top 10 of 2011 list that year! It really does have a such a thought-provoking nature as its never nice to think of a young person facing death. I thought the friendships made with the older men also battling against different types of cancer was a good addition as well, showing that people come together to support each other no matter on their age.

Thinking of a drama comedy involving cancer I guess it was quite risky trying to get the comedy parts in so they didn’t sound horrible but it really was a perfect balance for this film. I thought the hair shaving off scene was a particular highlight of this as the two friends seemed to make a decision that it was a good idea for Adam to do this. So a very good film was so many different things you can take from it! Not forgetting Anna Kendrick’s performance as the trainee psychiatrist trying to help Adam deal with his situation, but don’t forget he’s only her third patient.

I could easily find myself watching this film again, it really does bring out so many different emotions for the viewers.