‘I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I recycle’…Film Club checks out 50/50
So this week our Film Clubbers chose 50/50 as their Pick of the Week. Was it a good decision? Read their thoughts below…But watch out! Spoilers ahoy.
LAURA ‘I went with an open mind as I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy it but I actually did!’
‘I liked the fact that I wasn’t sure of how the film was going to end – too many films have predictable endings, but it did keep you guessing if he’d die or not.’
‘I loved the relationship between Kyle and Adam. I was worried it was going to be a depressing film but I think they balanced emotion and humour well.’
STEPHEN ‘Great film. The whole cinema was in tears when he went for his operation, I started when he told his dad he loved him!’
CELINE ‘Over-rated! It could have been genius but for bad script and bad direction.’
‘I almost teared up 20 minutes from the end when you realise that Seth Rogen really cares for his friend. I think the
director should have exploited that way before.’
‘I think it would have been a better movie without the last 10 minutes…’
LYNN ‘I really loved this film – so funny considering the subject matter, but it still dealt with it in a sensitive way.’
‘I loved that it wasn’t mawkish. The balance between laughs and tears were handled very well. I saw this film twice and cried a lot more the second time round.’
JEFF ‘It was good, but I think it’s pretty overrated. I’m so tired of Seth Rogen. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but I’m sick of seeing him play varying degrees of himself in every film.’
‘I thought it was decent. JGL is good but it was just average to me. I think it’s getting too much love just because it’s a cancer story.’
MIKE W ‘Considering the cancer-comedy theme, it was a very good film and worked superbly. It was very strong and generated a lot of laughs in (mostly) good taste, and I saw no real weaknesses to it.’
‘I don’t think it exposed us to the true harrowing nature of the disease, but kept it a little lighter in the context of the film. Saying that, there were some very emotive and touching scenes.
‘I was close to welling up on a few occasions but didn’t cry, although I still managed to connect emotionally with the characters.’
ALLEN ‘It’s my favourite film of the year. It got the balance just right – it managed to be hilarious but also gave real moments of emotion that never felt forced.’
‘A lot of films about an illness of this type just tend to pile on the misery and despair. But 50/50 managed to organically build the emotion, I watched it through a veil of tears!’
DAVE ‘Fantastic, just a great mixture of comedy and heartbreak.’
‘One of Gordon-Levitt’s best performances and the cast around him worked just as well.’
‘It was definitely a fresh take on the subject matter, but the comedy never took away the absolute hell his character was going through dealing with the illness.’
JAMES ‘I loved it. Excellent writing, excellent acting, heartfelt, and genuinely funny. It got the balance of laughs and tears spot on.’
‘I thought JGL carried the film with his restrained performance. But the scene when he lets out all his anger is one of the rawest pieces of acting you’ll see this year. He deserves awards recognition for that alone.’
‘I enjoyed the scenes with his hospital buddies! Their scenes provided some warmth and laughs, and they also served as a plot device to illustrate the devastatingly unpredictable nature of the disease.’
ALISON ‘I really liked it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was brilliant!’
‘I thought it was refreshing that they used humour in a film with this subject. Usually they are too sensitive.’
‘I didn’t cry but there were a few drops of water in my eyes in the scene at the end when he is going for his operation.’
KURT ‘I enjoyed it. Missold as a cancer comedy, it was more a good drama with natural reactions to having a horrible disease.’
‘I didn’t cry at all. I welled up a few times but it was nothing compared to Warrior in the tissue stakes!’
‘The best film Seth Rogen has been in.’
MIKE M ‘I can’t really think of a bad word to say about this film. It was fantastic – moving, sad and very, very funny. Seth Rogen was hilarious.’
‘I really don’t think it needed to focus on the grim reality of the medical side of things. It was about friendship – it avoided being mawkish and sentimental.’
‘I cried a bit. I’ll admit it. And laughed a lot. I was a crying, laughing idiot. Great cinema experience all round!’
‘I’m a big fan of Seth Rogen, I think he has a great likeability factor. But yeah, he does pretty much play himself in everything. Not the most versatile performer.’
ELENA ‘I laughed, I gasped, I cried and I laughed a little bit more. But I’m still not sure it’s a comedy.’
‘I quite liked the way they dealt with Seth’s character, they didn’t give it all to us in one go – I thought that
worked well from an audience point of view. But I don’t particularly care for him as an actor in all honesty. I thought that he and Anna Kendrick were a little poor in comparison to JGLs performance.’
ZARINA ‘I thought it was surprisingly funny throughout without being cringe-worthy (I generally don’t like bad taste jokes but they stayed mostly clear from those) while still giving the appropriate amount of time to the drama of the situation and developing both the characters and the storyline.’
‘JGL was fantastic, and while I normally cannot stand Seth Rogen, I thought he was excellent in this. I really liked Anna Kendrick too.’
And finally, YASMIN? ‘I thought it was a great movie. It had soul and it was nice to see JGL in a role which showed his range. Ever since he did Mysterious Skin I’ve had huge respect for him.’
‘I liked this very much, Along with Drive and Harry Potter, it’s in my top three of the year. This is one of the few movies this year I’m already looking forward to seeing again.’
Oh, how we did love this movie. And we don’t often say that, so you know we totally mean it. It’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s moving, it made us cry a little bit – we didn’t even mind the odd bit of toilet humour (this is a Seth Rogen flick, after all).
50/50 is Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s movie. We’ve been fans of his for ages (hello, 3rd Rock From the Sun!) but he really is proving himself to be a phenomenal actor. There’s one scene in particular where we got actual, bona-fide chills. A brilliant performance. On that note, we’d be interested to see original leading man James McAvoy’s take.
Seth Rogen does a good job of being Seth Rogen, albeit with a little more emotional heft than usual. Presumably his close experience with the material (he was writer Will Reiser’s BFF throughout his own cancer diagnosis) helped him out with that. And we love Anna Kendrick. She’s watchable as always, but Lordy her character is possibly the worst therapist ever.
Bryce Dallas Howard gets a bit shafted; her character is actually kind of a bitch. And Adam’s dad occasionally feels a bit more plot device than person. That said, it’s a plot device which gives the wondrous Anjelica Huston more to do – that’s never a bad thing.
Kings of the supporting characters are Adam’s ‘chemo buddies’, two dudes years older than him who are the only ones to get what he’s going through. Their scenes together are super-sweet and genuinely chuckletastic – making the conclusion of that storyline all the more Kleenex-inducing.
On the subject of weepy moments, this may be a comedy but there are a few sucker-punches in there. Prepare yourself; you’ll be chortling one second and sobbing the next.
Is it funny? Er, yeah. Without ever being offensive, 50/50 takes serious disease out of the realm of schmaltzy, purposely uplifting tearjerkers (we’re looking at you, My Sister’s Keeper) and makes cancer gags instead. It’s a weepie, but fans of weepies will probably hate it if you get what we mean.
But just what is this Film Club malarkey all about? It’s simples, really. Each week we send a pair of cinema tix (ODEON or Cineworld, whichever is best) to 10 of our most active Facebook/Twitter followers. We put the film we’re going to see to the vote, and the winning film is the one we all go to see. Then we all sit around on Facebook on the Sunday night (6.30) and chat about it. Magic. Sound like something you want to get involved with? Drop us a line at twitter.com/f_t_r_c or on Facebook at on.fb.me/d4dMv8
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