Mandate Pictures
100 min., dir. by Jonathan Levine, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anna Kendrick

Cancer comedy is an odd genre — I spent the whole of 50/50 in a strange unimmersed state. The most noteworthy thing about the film is the very deliberate timings between serious melancholy scenes and the silly joke scenes. The film only comes alive when it crashes the two together.

The story follows Adam Lerner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a healthy man who has gotten cancer at a very young age, and his changing relationships with his friends and family — mostly focusing on his best friend, Kyle (Seth Rogen).

Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are funny in their own ways, but the chemistry between the two on screen is sketchy at best. This is primarily because 50/50 is a film where Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Adam Lerner and Seth Rogen plays Seth Rogen.

But in truth, there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying this. There are ample moments in the film which match the comedy level of the excerpts used in the trailer (although few scenes are funnier), and, thankfully, cancer is dealt with in a realistic manner rather than wallowing in tragedy.

There are tragic elements, though — it seems almost perversely tragic that Adam’s father has Alzheimer’s. It’s not directly dealt with, giving the feel that it fell victim to the editing floor, leaving behind a side story that is nothing more than a casually depressing reference.

50/50 spends most of its time preparing you for Adam’s death and survival in equal amounts, and I’m not sure whether to commend it or loath it for finally landing on one of them and then hyperactively changing its mind and choosing the other one instead.

Unfortunately, 50/50 serves more as a method for some lighthearted cancer jokes rather than establishing any characters. This is especially prevalent with the female characters who are easily boiled down to one word descriptions (“bitch” and “awkward” come to mind).

Having said all this, I did laugh on many occasions. Joseph Gordon-Levitt does, as always, a good job. 50/50 is a damn sight better than much of the other films released this summer, despite running back and forth between sad and funny like a shoddy bi-polar impersonation.