50/50

The writer of this film happens to have had cancer in his 20s and happens to have had Seth Rogan as the friend who helped him through it- and that is probably why it feels so real. If there is one big reason to see this it would be that it is so genuine. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Adam, the guy with the schwannoma of the spinal cord, (look it up), who is given 50/50 odds of survival. Rogan is his best buddy, the very pretty Bryce Dallas Howard plays Adam's manipulative and needy girlfriend and the bright and chipper Anna Kendrick plays his fledgling therapist in training.  This is NOT a cancer movie despite the haircut, vomiting, chemo and fear that Adam will lose in the end. It is really a guy movie- it is about Adam and Kyle and how friends just don't leave when the going gets tough. It is very funny in spots- and you don't feel guilty laughing. That's unusual in a cancer film.  I am going to highly recommend it, just as other critics have done. Besides- it is easy to root for the sweet faced Gordon-Levitt. I hope that despite the good performance by Kendrick, she will stop with the stereotypical "young professional" roles. She really is in danger of being typecast.  I am giving it 3.5 stars because, as usual, the realist in me has to deduct .5 for the predictable ending. And by that, I don't mean whether or not he survives, but the relationship he ends with. But overall, it's great.