Monday, October 10, 2011

Jason watches 50/50

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Adam, a guy who's such a straight arrow that not only does he not drink or smoke, he waits at the crosswalk for the walk signal even when there's nobody coming the other way. He's practically a caricature of the straight arrow, and of course the last guy you'd expect to get cancer. So, of course, he does (I don't think that's a spoiler, it's in all the trailers). Seth Rogen essentially plays himself as Adam's best friend Kyle. And he's got a seemingly devoted girlfriend, a mother who smothers him (while also taking care of his father, who has Alzheimer's), and you should have all the ingredients of a solid drama. But you have even more. You have a drama with laughs (or maybe a comedy with pathos). And you have a hero you can't hope but root for. You root for him to survive, you root for him to reconcile with his mother, and you root for him to (spoiler alert!) dump his girlfriend and end up with the right girl. It's an entertaining cancer movie (which is an oddity in itself) but also one that feels pretty real (except for maybe his mental breakdown in the car, but I even find it hard to find fault with that scene).

Running Time: 100 minutes
My Total Minutes: 250,040

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