I felt that 50/50 was an appropriate name for this film as half of the leads in this movie, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, are terrific actors and half, Seth Rogen, are supposed comedians who have never and will never said or done anything funny. (Somehow, it always surprises me that Tommy from 3rd Rock from the Sun has turned into such a quality performer, but it really shouldn't as he stole every scene in that show from another surprisingly talented actor in John Lithgow.) I delayed going to see this for several weeks fearing that the Seth/Joseph ratio would be 50/50 or greater, luckily it was about 20/80. And little Tommy turns in an admirable performance as a young man dealing with the possibility of his imminent death. Calling this movie a comedy is a bit if a stretch, but it works very well as a drama. If I have any complaint about this movie, it's that it steals a lot thematically from another good-but-not-really-funny Seth Rogen vehicle, Funny People. (There is no accusation of plagiarism here. The two movies are completely different, but it's hard not to notice when the same actor takes on a very similar role.)
I'm tired of politicians, the news media, and Lance Armstrong talking about cancer as an "epidemic" like it's some newfangled modern day plague. Saying cancer rates are on the rise may be factually correct, but it ignores the factor most commonly linked to cancer: age. Some things, like radiation and smoking, have been conclusively linked to cancer, but when they start reporting that barbeque is the world's tastiest carcinogen, I start getting a little skeptical. Ribs don't cause cancer, life does. More people are getting cancer now because they're not dying from dysentery, because less people are dying from heart attacks. not because of some fundamental change in the environment. It is my opinion that everyone gets cancer at least once in their life and if they don't it's just because they died of something else first. Everyone knows someone who has cancer, who's survived cancer, who's died from cancer and many have had it themselves. You are not special. Sure, cancer sucks and it really sucks when it's your turn to deal with it, but that makes you normal, not special. Cancer should not be feared. It represents the inevitability of death which saves us from the nightmare that is immortality.
I bring all of this up not just to be a dick (although that's definitely part of it), but because the unspecialness of cancer is a major theme of the film. Joseph's character, Adam, spends most of the movie dealing relationships with women, friends and family, rather than cancer. Sure, all of his relationships are affected by the disease, but they aren't defined by it. Kyle, who was a good friend before the cancer, remains a good friend after. Rachel, who was a bad girlfriend before the cancer, remains a bad girlfriend (then an ex-girlfriend) after. Adam is told at one point that having cancer is no excuse to be a dick to his mother. Adam's mother asks for the AC to be turned down because her son has cancer to which the nurse replies with a look that says, "This is an oncology ward. Everyone has cancer." All of this combines to paint a portrait of what it really means to live with cancer.
Now for a reality fact-check, ultra-hot therapist-in-training Katherine lost her job. The first rule in the psychiatric community is you can't have sex with a patient. In fact, it's legally considered rape if you do. It doesn't matter if Adam stopped being her patient before they started dating, it's still an inappropriate relationship. As soon as their relationship began to turn romantic, she needed to drop him as a patient or steer them back towards a professional relationship. Allowing herself to get pulled into a romantic relationship with a patient is a serious breach of medical ethics which will almost certainly turn out badly for her.
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