When writer Will Reiser called his friend Seth Rogen to tell him he had cancer, Rogen was in his bathroom, desperate to keep his buddy from knowing he was on the toilet. That was only the first of the absurdities that became the backstory of the terrific new movie, “50/50”, which Reiser, now recovered, based on himself with Rogen’s help.

 

By Mitch Silver

 

When writer Will Reiser called his friend Seth Rogen to tell him he had cancer, Rogen was in his bathroom, desperate to keep his buddy from knowing he was on the toilet. That was only the first of the absurdities that became the backstory of the terrific new movie, “50/50”, which Reiser, now recovered, based on himself with Rogen’s help.

 

The perfectly cast Joseph Gordon-Levitt, of “The Lookout” and “(500) Days of Summer”, plays Adam Lerner who, like Reiser, is a young cancer patient with a 50/50 chance of survival. Rogen, as his co-worker Kyle, pretty much plays himself. The website Vulture.com asked the actor how the screenplay came about: “Before he got sick, Will was a somewhat annoying, neurotic guy. And when he was better, he was better. I mean, you could see he was happier and had worked out a lot of his problems. After that, we realized, Oh, he lived a movie. That’s exactly what happens in a satisfying movie.

 

“So at that point, we encouraged him to write about what happened: ‘You started out one way and you ended up a better way because this horrible thing happened.’ Literally, we would think of what the funny cancer movie would be. That was what we would joke about at a bar. ‘Oh, maybe you meet a girl with leprosy, and it’s a comedy.’”

 

In the hands of young director Jonathan Levine, whose film “The Wackness” wowed them at Sundance a few years ago, “50/50” lives up to its title in another way. It’s half a moving drama, half hilarious comedy — a perfectly realized dramedy.

 

Besides the two main characters, who produce radio pieces for a Seattle NPR station, it features Anna Kendrick, the uptight techie who fired people online in “Up in the Air”. Here she plays an uptight therapist, Katherine, whose attempts to sympathetically touch Adam – her third patient ever – strike him like the “pawing of a sea otter”.

 

Three old pros give the film extra gravitas: Anjelica Huston is Adam’s mom, who helpfully explains to Katherine during her son’s cancer surgery, “I smother him because I love him.” The estimable Philip Baker Hall plays older cancer patient Alan, with fellow sufferer Mitch portrayed by Matt Frewer (remember him as Max Headroom?).

 

For such a wonderfully polished film, it went through a bunch of titles. Early on it was called “I’m with Cancer”, then “Live With It”. Preview audiences saw the title “Get Well Soon”. Finally, it was Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays Adam’s artist-girlfriend Rachel, who came up with the title “50/50” while on a Vancouver set. It stuck.

 

I was hooked on this movie when Kyle, who’s just learned his friend’s odds of survival, reassures Adam. “Fifty-fifty? It’s not that bad. If you were a casino game, you’d have the best odds!”

You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. Can’t beat that