Some subjects seem to demand reverential treatment in movies or real life, and cancer is one of them.  So a movie that dares to dilute the horror of the disease with humor seems refreshing.  Even though there is nothing funny about cancer, there is certainly humor to be mined from the circumstances of one young man’s fight against it.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt — one of this generation’s best, and most undervalued, actors — portrays Adam, a perfectly healthy guy who eats right, doesn’t smoke or drink, and yet still finds himself battling a rare, virulent form of the disease.

The humor of the piece comes not so much from Adam, but the people around him: his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen), his protective mother (Anjelica Huston) and the therapist (Anna Kendrick) who doesn’t quite know how to help him face his darkest fears.  Adam has his hands full with them, as well as a girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) who ultimately does not share his strength of character.

Jonathan Levine’s film is fairly crude, which is a shame in my opinion, and much of that crudity surrounds Kyle.  The story’s weakest aspect was believing that Adam would be best friends with this goof (I’m not a big Seth Rogen fan, obviously) — and yet Kyle, to his credit, never bails on his friend.  The nicest aspect is the evolving relationship between Adam and his therapist, which was believable and moving.  I won’t disclose the ending, which could have gone one of two ways (it was 50/50 which way it would go), except to say that it made sense and was dramatically satisfactory.  That’s all one can ask.  ✰ ✰ ✰.  26 Oct. 2011.