50/50

I watched the film 50/50 recently and was pleasantly surprised to find it was a very good, funny film and unpleasantly surprised at how it yanked up my own memories of dealing with cancer-mainly watching my mother fight it for my entire teen years before bowing out in 2000, the fall after I turned 21. After which, of course, I got into drinking and haven't looked back since!

50/50 deals with a 27 yr old guy named Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is diagnosed with a rare spinal form of cancer and his eccentric friend (Seth Rogen), who loves his friend with a devotion unmatched by Adam's own girlfriend and perhaps Jesus Christ himself. It's the story of their friendship, more than anything else, that makes this film awesome. I know this is all sounds like the storyline of an after school special, but as soon as the film nears schmaltzy territory it's suddenly kicks back in with profane humor and dark, pot smoking good times. I don't know if you could make a movie dealing with a sick best friend any better, really.

The scene that really got me is when he goes into the hospital for a big, dangerous surgical procedure and as he's just starting to say goodbye to his mom and dad when the nurse informs him they've already started the anesthetic drip and he exclaims, "What? You've already started?" knowing full well he might never wake up again. A few seconds later he's being whisked away to surgery and next we see Adam unconscious on the surgical table, turned on his side, looking pale and skinny and devastatingly fragile, his connection to life as tenuous as a mishandled scalpel.

Also, they play Pearl Jam's "Yellowledbetter" during the credits-I didn't have a chance.