Public news radio writer Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) finds out that he has cancer.  Unable to lean on his barely available girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) or too available mother (Anjelica Huston), he depends on his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) and new therapist Katherine (Anna Kendrick).  Screenwriter Will Reiser was insistent on avoiding any kind of sentimentality.  His script is a sobering account of what it was like for him to go through his real-life battle with cancer six years ago.  While he steers clear of ringing out tears of inauthenticity, there is still a hollowness to the story’s development. 

Bryce Dallas Howard has the thankless role as vapid, pretentious Rachael.  While her work is admirable, her character (as well as that of Katherine) betrays the conventionality of the script.  A more mature route would have been to have written her as less a villain and more a human being.  Here, her only purpose is to provide the cloud that Anna Kendrick will line with silver.  Kendrick is thoughtful with her trademark clipped voice; she’s a tiny wisp of a thing who bides her time soundly, helping you totally believe in her unlikely professional transgressions.  Along with the two lead females, Reiser intimates the unbearable pain in chemotherapy, but shies away from it upon its introduction. 

If there are any true standouts, it’s Huston as Adam’s mother and Philip Baker Hall as a cancer buddy.  She chokes on a line once during an emotional scene, but otherwise provides a more nuanced performance.  She tempers her Lilly Dillon with some Shirley MacLaine care of Terms of Endearment.  As the clique goes, Baker Hall is one of those rare actors who could make a phonebook sound interesting (but, with the internet, I suppose that phrase is going the way of the dinosaur?). 

How much you enjoy this film will depend on your feelings towards the two male leads: the pale, sullen Gordon-Levitt and stand-up comic Rogen. I can appreciate Gordon-Levitt’s general love of old Hollywood that surfaced from time to time in his films, as well as Rogen’s everyday relateability and positivity, but I don’t respond to their brands of acting or humor, mostly, especially Rogen.  But fans of either or both of the men will be pleased with their work here.  There’s a greater than 50/50 chance they’ll love the movie. 

Movie Spoiler Plot Summary

Originally titled I’m With Cancer, then Live With It, 50/50 opens with a soundtrack that kicks off an indie-feel.  Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) listens to his iPod while jogging around Stanley Park and then showers at his apartment.  Adam and Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) discuss their evening plans and the course of their relationship.  Adam’s best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) awaits him in his car outside.  (Adam doesn’t have a driver’s license)   They discuss Adam’s sex life after Adam brings up the back problems he has been experiencing recently.  They both work as writers at SPR (Seattle Public Radio).

Adam visits Dr. Ross (Andrew Airlie) and he explains to Adam that he has spinal cancer, a variation of Schwannoma, a result of a rare genetic fluke.  Adam breaks the news to a surprised Rachael and gives her an out.  She hesitatingly decides to stay.  Adam breaks the news to Kyle.  He then invites his parents over, Diane (Anjelica Huston) and Richard (Serge House), to inform them of his news with the help of Rachael.  Richard suffers from Alzheimer’s and Diane does not take the news well.  Adam takes up Dr. Ross’ suggestion to see a staff therapist and he meets with Katherine (Anna Kendrick), a young intern who has just started, who uses psychological babble and New Age music as part of the counseling.  Rachael brings home an older dog named Skeletor.  Adam and Kyle attend a party in Adam’s honor at SPR. 

Rachael drives Adam to the hospital, but she won’t go into the hospital, because she’s emotionally ill-equipped to deal with Adam’s sickness.  Adam ends up chilling with two gentleman Alan and Mitch (Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer) and gets high with them before his first chemotherapy treatment.  Adam takes a nice green-induced trip to the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody.”  Later, Adam pukes in his bathroom due to the chemo.  He meets with Katherine again and she tries to get him in touch with his feelings.  He nixes that idea before making light of another one of her methods.  She gives him some book suggestions.  She tries gently touching him on the arm a couple of times to comfort him, but it has the opposite effect.

Adam decides to shave his head at Kyle’s apartment while a reggae song plays in the background.  At the hospital, Rachel is an hour late to pick Adam up for chemo.  Adam and Kyle visit a bookstore to find some of the titles Katherine suggested.  Kyle uses Adam’s cancer to pick up a girl, Claire (Laura Bertram).  Adam’s mother calls to check in on him.  Kyle takes Claire to an art gallery showing where he spots Rachael making out with another guy who looks like white Jesus.  Rachael comes home and Adam wants to snuggle, but she turns him down opting for bed.  Kyle walks in and tells Adams that Rachael has cheated on him, providing, “Exhibit WHORE”—a picture of the two kissing on his iPhone.  Rachael leaves. 

While walking Skeletor, Adam and Kyle meet a cute, young woman walking her dog.  Kyle coaxes Adam out to some night-life to use his cancer to his advantage when hitting on girls.  Adams tries a few times and fails before Kyle finds two girls to take home.  Before Adam screws everything up at a hot dog stand, he invites the girls home to get high.  Due to his back pain, Adam can’t go through with it, but Kyle successfully gets laid. 

Katherine spots Adam waiting for a bus outside the hospital and insists she give him a ride home.  He accepts and ends up having to clean her messy gray Volkwagen Golf/Rabbit of all the litter she has left strewn about.  What turns out to be a rather long ride, it’s dark by the time they arrive at Adam’s.  She gives him his phone number “in case of an emergency.”  At Adam’s, Claire arrives to pick up her things.  She informs Adam her art show went horribly and she really wants him back in her life.  He rejects her.  The next day, Adam and Kyle have fun destroying one of the paintings Rachael gave him to Roy Orbison’s “Crying.”

At the home of Mitch, Adam relaxes with Alan and Kyle.  Adam is short with his mother in front of Katherine before one of their sessions.  Alan informs Adam that Mitch has died.  Adam watches a report on a newly erupting volcano in Hawaii that he would have reported on were he not sick.  Adam meets with Katherine again and he discusses his mortality; this results in an argument.  Adam calls his mother.  His parents arrive at the hospital and his doctor informs them that his tumor is growing and he needs a surgery immediately.  Adam learns that his mother has been going to a support group for parents of cancer patients. 

Adam and Kyle get drunk.  Kyle allows Adam, who doesn’t have a license, to drive.  He takes off and drives the wrong way onto a one-way street.  Adam demands Kyle leave his car.  Adam freaks out, screams and then calls Katherine.  The next day, he learns that Kyle has been reading up on cancer and how he can help his best friend through his journey. 

The next day, Adam goes into surgery, with Kyle and his parents by his side.  Katherine shows up later.  The surgery is successful.  Later, Adam and Kyle are at his apartment when Katherine shows up with pizza for their first date; Kyle leaves.  The film closes with Pearl Jam’s “Yellow Ledbetter.” 

Box Office Outlook
It’s an audience-friendly movie about cancer with young, recognizable leads.  This is Mandate Pictures’ (also coproduced by Relativity Media; U.S. distributed by Summit Entertainment) highest profile film to date with such serious subject matter.  It’s likely that it will gross around the $6 - $12M range, though it could do much better, who knows.  I don’t foresee any Oscar attention.  The film’s release date is September 30, 2011.  The running time is 100 minutes.