2011 Films: #13

#13  50/50


Perhaps in a different year--and I didn't yet see Tinker Tailor, but Gary Oldman of course deserves to finally get a nod--Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be deserving of best actor recognition for his work in 50/50. I was happy to see the Golden Globes nominated him, because J.G-L seems to constantly turn in great efforts, whether it's lead spots like Hesher, Brick and (500) Days of Summer or in supporting roles like last year's stunning Inception. I guess that when I watched "3rd Rock from the Sun" as a kid, I didn't expect any fictional relative of French Stewart to end up anything other than Hollywood blacklisted.

50/50, like any decent movie dealing with disease, is unflinching in its portrayal of its protagonist. In this case, when Adam (Gordon-Levitt) learns of his diagnosis, the doctor's words become distant and distorted, and a high-pitched nonthingness takes over in his ears. This is almost exactly how it plays out when Walter White (Bryan Cranston) finds out he has cancer in the superb Breaking Bad; this reaction is how I have always imagined it, the body doing anything and everything to block out what it has just heard. Adam is only 27, and is given a 50% chance of survival. It's a good thing he has Kyle (Seth Rogen), his horn-dog party guy best friend to tell him things like "If you were a casino game, you'd have the best odds," and "Young people beat cancer all the time. Lance Armstrong? He keeps getting it." Kyle despises Adam's girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) and will do anything to get her out of the picture, and Adam's mother Diane (Angelica Huston) will do anything to put herself into the picture, including trying to move in with him. As part of his treatment, Adam has to meet with young therapist Katherine (Up in the Air's Anna Kendrick), who he does his best to not take seriously.

The Kubler-Ross cycle, better known as the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) has almost never been shown in a more accurate fashion, particularly the denial piece. Adam spends the majority of the first half of the movie smiling calmly rather than facing his condition head on. If he ignores it, he thinks, then it's not there. But when things start to turn in his personal life, he goes all Will Hunting and begins to let his therapist in, and just like that, the zen is gone: "That's what everyone has been telling me since the beginning. 'Oh, you're gonna be okay,' and 'Oh, everything's fine,' and like, it's not...it makes it worse that no one will just come out and say it, like 'hey man, you're gonna die.'" 50/50, as you may already know, is written by Seth Rogen's real life best friend Will Reiser, who fought against and ultimately beat cancer at a very young age. Therefore, Rogen understands the material and runs with it, making for a balls-to-the-wall sidekick who both wants to help his best friend and wants to exploit the situation for chicks. Kendrick, Howard and Huston all feel realistic (especially Huston, whose performance reminded me of exactly how my mother would react to news like that), but none are more dialed in than Gordon-Levitt. It's not an easy character arc to take on, and he does so with ease, bringing humor, passion and hubris to a touchy situation.