Cancer Movies: 50/50

Maybe like me, you have put off watching the 2011 comedy/drama called 50/50. I didn’t watch it for years because I thought it was either a sappy, tearjerker about cancer, or a gross, expletive-filled, Seth Rogen 20-something boy story. I didn’t know, and I didn’t realize, that it could be both.

We watched it last night and we laughed and cried. Yeah, John too. I am glad that I didn’t see this at the movies with friends though. Not because the cancer scenes cut so close to home but because there is one boy-to-boy discussion of their girl friends and certain sex acts that made me blush. If I saw this movie on a first date I’d leave the theater in sunglasses and go right home. (alone.)

But, we’re not dating, we’re married and we’ve done that sex act so I am laughing as as I type this, Ok it’s that funny.

And yes, Seth Rogen is mostly a pig but, a pig with a heart for friendship, good writing and insight into how guys talk and fight and love each other. Yeah, the movie is a love story and –spoiler alert—the love object is not Anna Kendrick. 

I would put 50/50 in my top three cancer movies. Check it out. But please, not on a first date. (And dear God, not with your in-laws.)