50/50 Review

50/50

Year:  2011

Director: Jonathan Levine

Main Actors: Joseph Gordon-Levitt,   Seth Rogen, and Anna Kendrick

It all began with a backache.  Adam, who is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, has a persistent backache.  After several doctor visits and X rays he finally has an answer: cancer.  Adam has a rare form of spinal cancer and his odds are 50/50.

This movie shows the medical industry at its best and worst.  When Adam goes into the doctor’s office the doctor immediately begins talking into a recorder as though Adam was not even in the office.  He was reading notes from the file, while Adam was just left to sit there.  After several minutes of this, Adam interrupts and the doctor begins to speak to him, except he is speaking as though he is talking to another doctor.  The doctor in this film is pretentious and cold.  He acts as though this is some common every day event, not someone’s life. 

Adam’s treatment by the doctor is not uncommon.  After working in the field for awhile, I guess doctors get used to it and forget that they are talking to people who A) don’t know medical jargon and B) are hearing a diagnosis about their lives.  The doctors, it seems, forget that people are scared and while they deal with cancer every day, the average person does not. 

When he starts chemotherapy he begins to see a psychiatrist at the hospital. Katie, the psychiatrist, is new on the job; she only had two patients before Adam, and is a little awkward at first.  Several times early in the movie she tries to place her hand on Adam, which is common for doctors. However, it just comes across as forced and awkward.  As the movie goes on, she gets better and comes across as genuinely caring.   

The movie also shows how his cancer affects his relationships with other people.  Rachael, his girlfriend, grows tired of caring for him. She is very late to pick him up from chemotherapy one time, she never goes in with him, and finally she cheats on him.  It turns out that she was going to break up with him, but found out he had cancer and felt obligated to stay even though he told her if she was not ready for this she could leave. 

His best friend, Kyle, played by Seth Rogan, is there for him the whole time.  However, at times he appears to be doing the wrong thing. He uses Adam’s cancer to get girls.  He tells Adam that he can get any girl that he wants because having cancer makes him unique.  However, they both learn it is not best to introduce that first; it just comes across as weird.  The night before the surgery, when they are going out he gets drunk and cannot drive them home.  Yet, when Adam goes to Kyle’s apartment there is a book about when a friend has cancer and we see that Kyle, despite several mistakes, was there for Adam the whole time.  Through thick and thin Kyle tried to get Adam’s mind off his problems and have some fun.

At treatments, Adam met two older men who had cancer.  They make the chemotherapy sessions bearable and they become good friends.  One offers him pot macaroons, to take the edge off.  In the end, one of the older men dies and it takes a toll on Adam. Adam too believes that he is going to die because people around him are dying.  The loss of one of his friends from chemotherapy makes him question his own life.

Finally, he realizes that his mother is trying her best.  Before his mother was just the worrier.  She constantly worries, which stressed him out, so he did not want to tell her or have her around.  When Adam went back to the doctor for an update he asked her to come and she was by his side trying her best not to add stress to his life.  It turns out she was attending a support group for parents the whole time, so that she could help him.

This movie shows the medical field for what it is.  There are some who deal with people coldly because they are used to cancer and since it does not directly affect them they tend to be distant.  It also shows the other side, someone who is new to medicine and is trying her best to help people with cancer. She learns that what is taught in school is not always how life works. 

The movie also shows how other people treat a person when he has cancer.  Some try their best to be there for the person.  Kyle tries his best to make Adam have fun and forget about what is going on.  Adam’s mother does her best and comes through for her son.  These people are the ones who proved themselves to be true friends.  However, as Adam learned not all will be there for you, when you need them most.  Rachael promised to help, but in the end cheated on him and caused more pain.  She could not deal with illness; she was not a person he needed in his life.