Film Review - 50/50 (2012)

50/50 stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Adam, a young man who works for a public radio station in Seattle who one day learns that he has a tumour with only a 50/50 chance of survival, something that his girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) and his best friend (Seth Rogen) find hard at first to come to terms with, not to mention his mother (Anjelica Huston.)

50/50 was a film I had mixed hopes for, the cast looked promising with the 4 mentioned above plus Anna Kendrick in a supporting role but I was overall unsure whether I would enjoy the film, so with that how was it?

Surprisingly I thought it was pretty good, mainly due to the writing by real life Cancer survivor Will Reiser and the cast, Levitt has become a star on the rise and its not hard to see why, he's very good in the film in both the moments of comedy and the dramatic moments as well, Huston and Kendrick also provide some nice backup support in their roles, though Kendrick does flash her smile a little too much at times.

Unfortunately though the film is not without its faults and one of them is Rogen, don't get me wrong he's okay in the film but I did find him somewhat distracting at times with his boorish attitude that borders on being like some of Rogen's other manchild type characters he's played in the past.

But the biggest fault is with Dallas Howard, her character is setup at first to be one of the more interesting ones but then the film tosses her aside in a really terrible way and also has a similar attitude towards both her character and Kendrick's and I was really bothered by that after a while, especially as both are rather lovely actresses to watch on screen.

So all in all 50/50 is worth checking out despite the faults, Levitt holds his own nicely and the writing has some nice moments to it, 3 out of 5.