Thursday 16 February 2012

50/50

Now this I really wanted to catch up with ever since I saw the trailer. 50/50 is the story of a 27 year old young man called Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). He can easily pass off to be a nerd of sorts. Prim and proper at all times. Doesn’t smoke. Doesn’t drink. He makes sure that he works out every day almost. Keeps himself fit and fine at all times. He is a good looking bloke to be fair. So what if he is a bit nerdy. So what if he has obsessions about cleanliness and OCDs about almost everything that his life should be. He is the one with the good looking girl friend. Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) seems to be reasonably ok around him.
Adam is very close friends with Kyle (Seth Rogen) who is your usual horny 27 year old (one can only assume his age since he hangs around with only Adam) and is always looking to get laid. He is the diametric opposite of Adam in terms of everything. Smokes, Drinks, Drives, Fools around, has the most unkempt look about himself and has an apartment which looks like a bachelor pad if I have seen one. Kyle hates Rachael and is looking for ways and means to get her out of Adam’s life with little or no success. Adam stays away from his parents – mother Diane (Anjelica Huston) and father Richard (Servge Houde) who suffers from Alzheimers.

So whats the big deal about this entire shebang that I just took you through? Wheres the story? Well, you see Adam has just been diaganosed with cancer. Hmmmm. That of the spine. Ouch. And his chances of survival – 50/50.

50/50 exposes the brittle nature of most of our relationships in our day to day life in a very humourous fashion. The pain and the fun that Adam goes through along with those who are closest to him is just beautifully represented by Johnathan Levine – a newbie director with not much to his credit to date. And to add some more fun, he goes about showing how Adam deals with what could be the last few days of his life in more or less “bucket list” fashion. And how he builds a relationship with his 24 year old therapist – Katherine (Anna Kendrick).

A few drawbacks also though. Anna Kendrick and Seth Rogen should get really worried about how they are getting typecast. Anna in the hyperactive, edgy individual kind of role and Seth as the disgusting unclean young bachelor kind of role. Anna more so because she seems to be the more talented of the two and also has an Oscar nomination to protect. Anjelica Huston is good as always and so is most of the support cast. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is at his ice cold best through the role and continues to raise the bar. A very enjoyable dark comedy of sorts. Worth watching. 7 on 10 is what I say.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3408305177/

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