Correctly Making Cancer Comedic
You always have to be careful when making comedies about big buzz words, including cancer. The challenge lies in using humor as a way to cope with something so awful; laughing because it makes things easier rather than making fun of cancer itself. Jonathan Levine definitely pulled it off in this touching comedy about the big "C." I can only hope that if cancer touches my life directly that I would be able to cope with it like the characters in this film did.
Seth Rogen took a break from the weed jokes to emit some humor everyone can connect to. (I mean, does anyone out there really find the weed-themed comedies all that funny?) He has a surprisingly comedic chemistry with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is up to his usual calm, cool, collected approach to the female lead, in this case played by Anna Kendrick, fairly effectively I might add. You may imagine that a storyline involving a cancer patient falling in love with his psychiatrist a bit simple within the confines of a comedy, but it actually works really well to help give the movie something tangible the viewers can choose to attach to.
The rest of the cast was forgettable, although I'm glad to see Anjelica Huston still getting good roles. Writing retrospective reviews is always difficult, especially for movies that I've seen more than a year ago. However, the way I see it, if the movie was good, then I would remember it enough to write one of my short reviews, right? What's keeping me from giving this a movie a 9 was the fact that most of the funny, laugh-out-loud moments were already shown in the preview for the film, which is dangerous. Aside from the jokes in the preview, there weren't too many new conventions introduced humor-wise.
That said, I remain impressed with the way Levine was able to weave drama and comedy together on the screen. I would definitely recommend this movie. If you or a loved one has been touched by cancer at some point, do not shy away from this one because it definitely pays its respects both dramatically and humorously.
Written July 6, 2013
Seth Rogen took a break from the weed jokes to emit some humor everyone can connect to. (I mean, does anyone out there really find the weed-themed comedies all that funny?) He has a surprisingly comedic chemistry with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is up to his usual calm, cool, collected approach to the female lead, in this case played by Anna Kendrick, fairly effectively I might add. You may imagine that a storyline involving a cancer patient falling in love with his psychiatrist a bit simple within the confines of a comedy, but it actually works really well to help give the movie something tangible the viewers can choose to attach to.
The rest of the cast was forgettable, although I'm glad to see Anjelica Huston still getting good roles. Writing retrospective reviews is always difficult, especially for movies that I've seen more than a year ago. However, the way I see it, if the movie was good, then I would remember it enough to write one of my short reviews, right? What's keeping me from giving this a movie a 9 was the fact that most of the funny, laugh-out-loud moments were already shown in the preview for the film, which is dangerous. Aside from the jokes in the preview, there weren't too many new conventions introduced humor-wise.
That said, I remain impressed with the way Levine was able to weave drama and comedy together on the screen. I would definitely recommend this movie. If you or a loved one has been touched by cancer at some point, do not shy away from this one because it definitely pays its respects both dramatically and humorously.
Written July 6, 2013