Movie Review: 50/50 (2011)

50/50 is a story about a man is his mid-twenties who contracts cancer and learns from WebMD that the survival rate for this particular type of cancer is 50%. It is believable in how it presents his struggle in response to being faced with his own mortality and how this affected his relationships with his friends, girlfriend, parents, and chemo-buddies. As a witness, I surely felt the emotional trauma, or at least a small portion of it. However, as I reflect on it, I consider the question of what exactly makes life meaningful. In our daily lives and with how busy they are, it is easy to just slide over such questions. But I can't help doing so. In the film, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character laments that he has never told a girl that he loves her, nor has he been to Canada. Even if one has done both, would one consider his life complete or yet fully serving a purpose? I'm not saying his life wasn't meaningful, but it led me to question if I was living an ego-centric life. Also important about this movie is how it shows how every individual's life is important [many films can somewhat trivialize this; I watched Contagion directly before watching this]. And for that, as well as encouraging us to think about how we treat others, I think this movie has some good things going for it. Regrettably, Seth Rogan's disgusting character did almost nothing for me (though his revealed dedication to his friend was laudable), and I find the movie did not have much the way for entertainment value. Without the philosophical reflection that it can induce, I can't say that I would recommend it.



P. S. [SPOILERS]

I would like to see how the the protagonist would live his life differently, if at all. Interestingly, I can't think of many stories that have a near-fatal experience in the beginning with how the survivor lived his life differently thereafter.