The Last Movie I Saw

I tend to shy away from movies about people suffering illnesses, mainly because they tend to be overly melodramatic and ultimately depressing. But every now and then one comes along that, because of the creative folks involved, I'm willing to check out. Away From Her (with Julie Christie and directed by Sarah Polley) was probably the last one in that category five years ago, and it lived up to my positive expectations. Now, I can say the same about 50/50 (directed by Johnathan Levine), which is perhaps not as artistically deft as Away From Her, but makes up for that with a healthy dose of pathos-deflating humor and a plot that revolves as much around the nature of friendship as it does coping with cancer. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen are the stars, and were enough of a hook to bring me in (I've liked both in most of what I've seen them in). In the end it reminded me of a couple of old movies from the seventies: Brian's Song and Bang the Drum Slowly. But both of those had a sports background, which back then was something of a pull all by itself. 50/50 is much more down to earth, and easier to identify with (not least because it's set in Seattle and so I recognized several of the locations from being there myself). It's got to be really hard to pull off both touching and funny, especially maintaining a proper balance between the two. But this movie pulls it off without giving in to maudlin righteousness, and deserves a lot of credit for that.