50/50

Last night I went to my friend's house and we ended up watching two movies that, by total coincidence, both had Angelica Huston in them. And, because she wasn't completely failing at playing Morticia Addams in either of them, I didn't hate her. Hooray!
50/50 is about Joseph Gordon-Levitt having unpronounceable back cancer. He has a girlfriend who you can tell from the first scene is a horrible bitch and that the relationship will end spectacularly mid-movie (I guess I should say SPOILER and such, but you really can tell, if not from the first time you see her then from the second scene when he's talking about how "meaningful" their relationship is). His best friend is Seth Rogen who provides pretty much all the humor in the movie (he's very hit or miss for me but I like him a lot in this one) and Angelica Huston is his mom, who I think has the most honest performance in the movie. I actually loved her in this.
The problem with 50/50 is it makes cancer look kind of fun. You get to destroy paintings with your funny best friend, you get a weird looking dog and you get to hang out with bald Matt Frewer and another old guy who curses a lot. (It kind of tries to show a sadder side, but it's sort of glossed over. "Oh, and he's sad and in pain, too, but look how funny Seth Rogen is!")
And (here's another minor spoiler) I realized about midway through that I wasn't going to be happy with a definite ending. If he died it would be too sad, if he lived it would be a total cop out. The only way I would have been happy with 50/50 would have been if it ended before you find out whether he survives. Ambiguity would have been the best way to go. And they didn't do that.
But overall I liked it way more than I had expected to. So that's good.

End of line.
-Sally