BP Film Review; 50/50

-Image from Movieweb.com

IMDB Plot Summery
Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who learns of his cancer diagnosis, and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.

Film Review By Christian Salinas
Expectations…
Being that this is a movie about cancer, I figured this would be an emotional, "meaning-of-life" kind of story, but I also assumed it would approach the subject matter in a funny(ish) light-hearted manner. This film is all of those things, but I have to say I would never have expected to find myself so emotionally invested in the main characters of a film starring Seth Rogen.

Entertainment Value…
It’s hard to gauge the entertainment value of a movie like this for obvious reasons. Nothing about cancer is entertaining. But as far as story-telling, and filmmaking is concerned, this movie is very entertaining in the sense that at no point in the film do you find yourself not caring about anything that is happening on screen. 

Overall…
I would have to say that this is probably one of the best films of the year so far. This movie features pretty much everything that makes a great movie; great performances, a great script, a perfect balance of emotion, and humor, it has a great message and overall theme, but most importantly it features characters you can truly care about. Joseph Gordon-Levitt projects an almost child-like innocence that makes the audience almost immediately sympathetic to his character. There are some pretty powerful and emotional scenes in this movie, but they are never forced or exaggerated, because they don’t have to be. When an audience is emotionally invested in a film and its main characters, everything matters and any danger the characters find themselves in immediately becomes emotionally overwhelming because we just don’t want anything bad to happen to them. This film is a very human story about dealing with adversity, and how ultimately the outcome of most of the challenges we face will rely heavily on the people we choose to surround ourselves with.

Note: I’ve read some criticism about how this film is not an accurate portrayal about the harsh realities of cancer, and although I have no doubt that is very true, I decided to base this review entirely on the movie itself in a strictly “filmmaking” sense.

The Good
Great performances, great story with a great message.

The Not so Good
The film’s “R” (mainly due to language) may keep a more conservative audience from wanting to see it.