50/50

Anna Kendrick and Frederick Gordon-Levitt in '50/50.'A Summit Entertainment release presented in colaboration with Mandate Pictures of the Point Gray production. Created by Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, Ben Karlin. Executive producers, Nathan Kahane, Will Reiser. Co-producers, Nicole Brown, Kelli Konop, Tendo Nagenda. Directed by Jonathan Levine. Script, Will Reiser.Adam - Frederick Gordon-Levitt Kyle - Seth Rogen Katherine - Anna Kendrick Rachael - Bryce Dallas Howard Alan - Philip Baker Hall Diane - Anjelica Huston A man in the late 20s faces even likelihood of beating cancer in "50/50," a title that may also describe the number of too-apparent humor to truly affecting drama within this uneven seriocomedy. Will Reiser's semiautobiographical script initially prescribes too artificial a tale strategy to its figures but is saved with a genial, low-key vibe that develops in sensitivity and emotion up with the final reels. Handicapped with a depressing if broadly relatable cancer-sucks premise, Summit's campaign is placing misleading focus on Seth Rogen's rambunctious best-friend use sell laff-seeking audiences about this pleasant but hardly uproarious Sept. 30 release. The type of responsible, risk-averse guy who regularly goes playing around his native Dallas and will not mix a street before traffic light permits, 27-year-old NPR staffer Adam Lerner (Frederick Gordon-Levitt) is naturally surprised when he discovers from the malignant growths along his spine. Within an excessively cold, anesthetized scene meant to stress Adam's shellshock and also the impersonal character from the medical establishment, an oncologist informs him he's a 50/50 possibility of survival. Adam attempts to remain positive, very difficult task after his mother, Diane (Anjelica Huston), and the best bud, Kyle (Rogen), respond to this news with techniques more overbearing than useful. Obviously, the one that fails Adam may be the one he needs probably the most: Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard), his sexy artist girlfriend, offers to uphold him and nurse him to health, but her discomfort using the ickier facets of Adam's chemo regimen -- with taste portrayed here with a few heard-but-not-seen vomiting -- is definitely an immediate giveaway that her commitment is quite under what it really seems to become. Around the same time frame, Adam starts counseling periods with newbie counselor Katherine (Anna Kendrick) which are by turns awkward, tetchy and mildly flirty. While Reiser's script has its own roots in personal expertise, these setup passages ring false with techniques that advise a movie torn between its crowd-pleasing imperatives and it is obligation to express something informative about Adam's experience in addition to Reiser's. There is something admirable concerning the pic's readiness to claim that our nearest and dearest do sometimes abandon us within our hour of finest need, and also the searing confrontation scene that closes Rachael's unfaithfulness is remarkably bold and nervy. Yet this subplot in general, from the convenient demonization from the disloyal g.f. to its publish-breakup celebratory montage, leaves a very sour aftertaste. Similarly problematic may be the pat, idealized growth and development of Adam and Katherine's relationship as they start to blur the physician-patient limitations. If these emotional developments feel too card board, you will find settlements in Jonathan Levine's direction, whose overall mellowness feels at one with Adam's nice-guy passivity. The fundamental benefit of "50/50" would be that the cancer patient here's somebody that is decidedly not the existence from the party, and Gordon-Levitt is ideally cast because the kind of sensitive, self-effacing guy who appears more special and appealing the more spent with him. Actor and script adroitly convey conflicting feelings that patients with lengthy-term ailments as well as their family members will certainly recognize: Adam's frustration at needing to comfort individuals nearest to him instead of be encouraged, and the refusal from the easy pity provided by buddies and acquaintances between snatches of small talk. It's this degree of quiet perceptiveness that allows "50/50" to finally, ahem, enter the body. Supporting thesps work even if the pic uses them in questionable ways. Howard, who between this and "The AssistanceInch is possibly at risk of being typecast like a villain, nevertheless makes Rachael as human and supportive as you possibly can underneath the conditions. Rogen, permitted to create possibly too broad and vulgar a tone in the beginning, eventually dials it lower because the pic got its search for Adam and Kyle's friendship to some much deeper level. On top of that is Huston, whose casting with what initially appears to become a slight nagging-mother role takes care of in the future with enormous emotion. Final scene is of the piece using the film's loose, easy mood, yet silently surprising within the note it selects to finish on. Pic overall marks a problematic but reasonably confident progression for Levine after his 2008 Sundance hit "The Wackness," that it shares an exuberant belief within the therapeutic advantages of pot smoking, regardless of what ails you. Tech package isn't any-nonsense but professional, with Vancouver along with other Bc locations waiting in effectively for grey, chilly Dallas.Camera (Technicolor/Luxurious color), Terry Stacey editor, Zene Baker music, Michael Giacchino music administrators, Jim Black, Gabe Hilfer production designer, Annie Spitz art director, Ross Dempster set decorator, Shane Vieau costume designer, Carla Hetland seem (SDDS/DTS/Dolby Digital), Shane Connelly supervisory seem editor, Robert C. Jackson re-recording mixer, Gary C. Bourgeois effects coordinator, Jak Osmond visual effects supervisor, Dottie Starling visual effects, Wildfire Visual Effects stunt coordinator, Scott Ateah line producer, Shawn Williamson casting, Francine Maisler. Examined at Wilshire screening room, Beverly Hillsides, August. 25, 2011. (In Toronto Film Festival -- Special Presentations.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 99 MIN.With: Serge Houde, Andrew Airlie, Matt Frewer, Peter Kelamsi, Jessica Parker Kennedy. Contact Justin Chang at justin.chang@variety.com