screen |skr_n| |skrin| |skri_n| noun • a blank, typically white or silver surface on which a photographic image is projected : the world's largest movie screen • movies or television; the motion-picture industry : she's a star of the stage as well as the screen. verb [ trans. ] • protect (someone) from something dangerous or unpleasant • evaluate or analyze (something) for its suitability for a particular purpose or application
Saturday, October 01, 2011
50/50
I’ll admit it: I’m Seth Rogened out. It seems like he’s been in too many movies lately playing the same kind of role. But if all of that was a warm-up for 50/50, maybe it was worth it. As the producer and actor, Rogen plays himself, gives himself the best part, and owns the best scene in the movie. Everyone in the cast is first-rate, elevating the script from a C+ dramedy into a B+ Oscar baiter. It’s neither the directing, the writing nor the cancer concept that makes it special. It’s the fact that the story is personal that makes it emotionally honest. It’s unusual, too, that the main character, played perfectly by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is so atypically plain. He’s not exceptional in way. He doesn’t have an interesting job. He doesn’t have some great calling in life. He’s not hilarious. In fact, the only thing vaguely unique about him is he has a pretty girlfriend -- a thankless role rendered skillfully and unselfishly by Bryce Dallas Howard. Howard’s shrew is juxtaposed beautifully by Anna Kendrick’s plucky young shrink. The cup is almost full here. A lot of talented youngsters have tried to nail down a James L. Brooks style dramedy tearjerker with mixed results. For every Up in the Air and 500 Days of Summer, there’s a Funny People. 50/50 manages to be more like the former than the latter.
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