50/50, a comedy staring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Seth Rogen, was originally titled I’m With Cancer. It’s the semi-true story of screenwriter Will Reiser’s battle with cancer at a young age. Reiser also happens to be Rogen’s best friend, so some of the scenes in the film apparently feature Rogen doing things for Levitt, who plays Reiser’s fictional alter ego, that he actually did for and with his friend.
But can cancer be funny? The critics think so. 50/50 has a 93% fresh rating on Rottentomatoes.com. I think my favorite summation of why this movie works comes from Salon.com’s Mary Elizabeth Williams:
“What ensues is Beaches meets Pineapple Express. Which, I’ve got to tell you, is pretty much what living with cancer is like.”
Beaches meets Pineapple Express with Joseph Gordon Levitt being charming, yet soulful and Seth Rogen being hilarious, yet heartfelt? Sign me up!
The majority of the critics out there seem to agree. Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post says, ”50/50 takes the hackneyed convention of illness-driven melodrama and reinvigorates it with honesty, clear-eyed compassion and unsentimental wit.” And Chris Vognar of the Dallas Morning Star thought that the film was, “Emotionally honest even when it’s going for big laughs and filled with lived-in visual detail, it’s raunchy and touching without ever being crude or mawkish, a small, sharp comic jewel with a big heart.” Even Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle, who seemed prepared to dislike the film, says that, “50/50 will be liked and appreciated even by people who can’t imagine wanting to see it.”
One of the few reviewers who disliked the film was Manohla Dargis of The New York Times. Her reaction to the film seems to have been the polar opposite of most of her colleagues. She said, “Neither the actor nor the filmmakers can get under Adam’s skin, despite all the close-ups and the moodily shot scenes filled with the kind of movie silence that feels more like the groping of an uncertain screenwriter than of a man facing his mortality.”
What do you think? Will you see 50/50? If you’ve seen it, did you like it?
