50/50: Toronto Film Review

One no more gasps in the audacity of the movie looking to get laughs about cancer or existence-threatening ailments. Such movies have grown to be an online subgenre among European filmmakers, and Showtime finds rankings and honours season success using the Large C, its dark comedy in regards to a lady identified with cancer.There can, obviously, be problems, as recent as Gun Van Sant'streacly tale Restlessin Cannes or, for individuals with strong reminiscences as well as more powerful DVD collections, dating back to 1978's The Finish,starring and directed by Burt Reynolds. (The terminal illness within the latter situation never was pointed out, if memory serves.) Into this subgenre strongly steps 50/50, a cancer comedy starring Frederick Gordon-Levitt andAnna Kendrickand compiled by Will Reiser,who draws on his personal fight having a rare type of that disease. His rate of success within the delicate balance between comedy and also the profound devastation of these a disease is a lot more than 50/50, however the film isn't without its tonal lapses. The guess here's that after the Jonathan Levine-directed film opens locally Sept. 30, following its Toronto debut, mainstream audiences are actually sufficiently conditioned for any comedy in regards to a disturbing illness -- just as long as that movie stays towards the sunny side from the street. Which 50/50does meticulously. Even throughout the movie's opening credits, Michael Giacchino's chirpy music assures the crowd that everything will probably be all right. Then your film's number of figures get introduced while you would in a situation comedy -- the simple banter, the minute recognition of types and also the readily recognized girlfriend-problem its hero-victim already suffers. The question 50/50raises is simply what lengths into sitcom territory are you able to venture with your material without trivializing the terrifying cancer experience? Reiser has everything over every other filmmaker who are able to only guess at what that have is much like. And perhaps things did happen by doing this to Reiser, who like a comedy professional required the Norman Cousins approach of laughing illness into submission. But this comedy professional has processed his experience via a purely formulaic script. Not necessarily a bad one, actually, and definitely not just one with no goodly quantity of laughs. However, you see virtually every story development coming miles away. The moment Gordon-Levitt's Adam get his diagnosis, the storyline breaks off into sitcom zones: Adam's home where irrepressible, best bud Kyle (Seth Rogen, doing dual purpose like a producer), drops by whatsoever hrs to create happy-slob good cheer as well as where distressed girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) is game to consider proper care of her guy its about 5 minutes the clinic where Adam does his chemo with a set of personable, level-headed older patients (Philip Baker Hall andMatt Frewer) and also the intimate therapist's office in which a flirtation evolves between Adam and the highly unskilled illness counselor, Katherine (Kendrick). Reiser has written his figures by having an indelible sweetness and vulnerability, which enables the cast to provide performances with a few depth. So a scenario for example Kyle insisting that Adam and that he should cruise women in a bar searching for sympathy lays -- Cruisin' using the Large C so to speak -- comes off as quite funny along with Adam's first chemo session where he eats weed-laced sweets produced with a fellow patient's wife and floats from the hospital later on. Gordon-Levitt is really an excellent actor that, using what comes down to a totally reactive character, he still scores large with easy-to-identify-with feelings that pitch him progressively right into a stress mode because the illness will not release its grip. It's worrying that Kendrick's role here's so near to her Oscar-nominated performance in Up within the Airas a newcomer professional who wrongly thinks she's all of the right solutions. But such is her facility with emotional transitions that they constitutes a success of the role that might have been written with possibly a tad too much condescension. A whole lot worse for the reason that department, however, is Howard's girlfriend, who wears her insincerity on her behalf sleeve. Following A Help, Howard is at risk of turning out to be Hollywood's favorite beautiful villain. Rogen stretches no new acting muscles here, but he is doing, as intended, give a humorous counterbalance towards the terrible (though mostly off camera) bustle of Adam's cancer treatment. Anjelica Hustonstarts off like a typical overbearing, worried mother but progressively determines her very own beachhead within the story's feelings as she copes with, in other words Adam's counselor, a husband she can't speak with along with a boy who will not return her calls. Oddly, the film accomplishes its finest success in the third act, where most movies collapse. Possibly since the importance of Adam's condition is much more apparent at that time, it's better suited convey the dark comedy guaranteed earlier. The emotional balance is much more stable and everything feels more real and fewer ... well, sitcom-ant. Tech credits are fine with Terry Stacey's cinematography doing justice to Canadian locations masquerading as Dallas and Annie Spitz's production design finding the frightening fight for survival within an authentic but nevertheless aesthetically pleasing atmosphere. Venue: Toronto Worldwide Film Festival (Summit Entertainment) Production companies: Summit Entertainment presents in colaboration with Mandate Picture a place Gray production Cast: Frederick Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston, Serge Houde, Andrew Airlie, Matt Frewer, Philip Baker Hall Director: Jonathan Levine Film writer: Will Reiser Producers: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, Ben Karlin Executive producers: Nathan Kahane, Will Reiser Director of photography: Terry Stacey Production designer: Annie Spitz Music: Michael Giacchino Costume designer: Carla Hetland Editor: Zene Baker R rating, 100 minutes Toronto Worldwide Film Festival Anjelica Huston Anna Kendrick Bryce Dallas Howard Frederick Gordon-Levitt Seth Rogen 50/50 Jonathan Levine