What We're Watching: Jan

50/50

Directed by Jonathan Levine. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anjelica Huston.

“I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I recycle.” is the disbelieving reaction of 27-year-old Adam (Gordon-Levitt) to his spinal cancer diagnosis. It’s the beginning of of a journey that tests Adam and also the many relationships in his life. He has a cheating girlfriend(Howard) who feels cancer has a "negative energy", a mother (Huston) who requires more mothering than he does and an unfeeling oncologist who is like a robot delivering his 50/50 chance of survival. Thank goodness for his best friend Kyle, played by the Seth Rogen that we know: loud and crude (like using Adam’s illness and the cancer sympathy card to pick up girls in the bar) but also in Adam’s corner, helping him shave his head and reading 'how to help cancer patient' books. Also positive in Adam’s life is Katherine (Kendrick), an inexperienced therapist who has been trained in comforting the sick but is even tentative about a reassuring touch to her patient. She and Adam end up coping with the disease at the same time. Based on the actual cancer experience of Rogen's friend Will Reiser, the movie feels like a real experience of a young man in his 20s. The language and references are sometimes raw but the sincerity of the performances is heartfelt. Wit and comedy make the sobering aspects of the situation bearable and a learning experience for the viewer.