50/50 ****

Based on the real-life experience of screenwriter Will Reiser and producer/actor Seth Rogen, "50/50" stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young man who learns he has an even chance of surviving the cancer he is diagnosed with, and co-stars Rogen as the supportive best friend. This may not sound like a premise for a comedy, but it's a genuinely funny and insightful look at twenty-something life in general, and young, stricken, play-by-the-rules Adam and his total hound buddy Kyle in particular. Adam is aided through the stages of his emotional journey by an impossibly young and inexperienced doctor in training, Katherine, whose walls of separation and professional defenses against involvement show signs of cracking, wonderfully played by Anna Kendrick. Add a needy girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) and a smothering mother (Anjelica Huston), and you have a potent, volatile mix. The dialogue is fresh and rings true, as you might expect from a writer who lived it. Good use is made of the Seattle setting, which comes across as a real place with real houses, neighborhoods, and weather.