50/50

This is a movie I had been putting off seeing because of everyone telling me I had to see it. Quickest way to get me to never see a movie? Tell me I have to see it. However, I finally did see 50/50. This movie is wonderful. I also feel like in a year when movies were very weak, the Oscars truly snubbed this gem of a movie.

The plot of this movie, in case you've been living under a rock and know nothing about it, is pretty simple. A guy who works for an NPR like radio station finds out his has a rare cancer that only has a 50% chance of survival. It easily could have then become another movie like Terms Of Endearment and gone into tear jerker territory. Guess what? It doesn't. It never falls into the trap of making jokes about cancer, but it also never starts taking itself overly serious and sad. It is a truly moving movie at points, and has some extremely emotional scenes. But it is filled with humor and honesty. The main character, played wonderfully by Joseph Gordon Levitt, has a best friend, played in a very huge departure by Seth Rogan, who is helping him get through all of this. All the while he has a mother who is trying to smother him, a therapist he is pretty sure he is falling for, and a girlfriend who becomes an ex girlfriend when she realizes what being with him through cancer means.

The writer of this one based a lot of this on his actual life and the lives of others he knew when he went through this. in fact, Seth Rogan is essentially playing a caricature of himself, since he really was the roommate who helped him get through his cancer. Don't be any later to the party than I already was. See 50/50 and give it the support it is owed at least in home video.