“My body tells me, ‘no’
But I won’t quit
‘Cause I want more
‘Cause I want more”–Young the Giant (“My Body”)
I just saw this movie over the weekend and found it incredibly interesting.
The film is about a young man named Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who discovers he has a rather serious tumor in his spine. With the help of his rather profane friend, Kyle (Seth Rogen) and his young, inexperienced therapist (Anna Kendrick) he tries his best to get through this horrible situation in a surprisingly comedic fashion.
The film itself forces you to adopt a whole different view on a cancer movie. In fact, this is basically a “cancer comedy”. The dialogue between Kyle and Adam is just priceless, and although some of the situations are incredibly morbid, some of them are freaking hilarious and some of them manage to combine both (I hate to say that I peed my pants laughing when a very stoned Adam started giggling when he saw a dead body, but…)
Gordon-Levitt’s acting was amazing. He’s got a very warm and inviting quality about him. He also has the rare and fantastic ability to create a laughable scene one moment and an intense, tear-jerking scene the next. Rogen’s character wasn’t responsible for as many emotional scenes, but he just nailed the comedy. His comedic timing was brilliant and his lines were ridiculously entertaining. At times, I felt that Kendrick was a little awkward in her scenes, but after watching more of the film I realized that she just had a really awkward character. Even so, it wasn’t a shining performance from her, but it wasn’t bad either.
Reiser and Rogen
The film was based on a true story about a man’s struggle with his disease. This man’s name is Will Reiser, author of the script for 50/50. Basically, it’s his own, slightly fictionalized account of what he actually went through a few years ago. Rogen (who was sort of playing a version of himself) urged Reiser to turn their experiences with the disease into a comedy. The result; this ridiculously amazing film.
I think the movie carries a really entertaining story that has the potential to help all of us realize that even when sh#t gets real, all of the crap that we’re feeling is somewhat psychosomatic. I’m not saying that everyone should just cheer up when it all goes to hell, I’m just saying that you should take a moment and think about where your story is going before you decide it’s all gone to hell.
A truly wonderful job all around. 5 out of 5 stars.
