YMMV / 50/50 (2011)

• Adorkable: Katherine, as befitting someone played by Anna Kendrick. The actress herself described her as "the worst therapist in the world", and the fact that she's in over her head serves to make her even more endearing.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Adam's girlfriend, Rachel - horrible manipulative Jerkass, or someone who feels genuinely sorry for hurting him, and really does WANT to help, but is just not very honest with herself about how well she can handle the situation?
  • Another part of the problem is that the relationship was apparently on the rocks even before his diagnosis. For all we know, one or the other or both of them may have been planning to end it before the revelation that he had cancer made her realise how horrible she would be to dump him in the midst of it. Her struggling may have been a desperate attempt to revive a dead relationship that ultimately failed.
  • Note that Rachel begs Adam to take her back after she says her gallery opening failed. That raises the question that she could be the type who only wants the relationship to work when it benefits her. It's entirely open if things were put in perspective for her and she actually was sorry, or she's just latching onto any excuse to make herself feel better. What's especially bad is her forcibly kissing after he asks her to leave.
• Award Snub:
  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance will make you cry, with no Oscar nomination to show for it.
  • The screenplay as well could've gotten in but didn't.
• Fans Prefer the New Her: In the ending scene, Adam has finished chemo and his hair is only just starting to grow back. But the short hair actually looks quite good on him. He also didn't look too bad bald either.
• Jerkass Woobie: Adam's mother is controlling, smothering and possessive to the point that Adam has to wait two days before he can tell her about his diagnosis. She's also fully aware of this, trying to justify her controlling behaviour as simple motherly love. But it's understandable that she's lonely and desperate for affection from someone - given that her husband has Alzheimer's. Katherine sums it up, subtly calling Adam out for this.
  "So she's got a husband who can't talk to her, and a son who won't."
• Squick: Near the end of the film, Kyle is applying antiobiotic goo to Adam's surgery scar, an enormous crevasse in his flesh. Also, he's applying the goo with his bare finger.
• The Woobie:
  • Adam is only twenty-seven, and is already dealing with a smothering mother and a father with Alzheimer's even before his diagnosis. Then his girlfriend cheats on him, his friend dies, and he has to face the reality that he could die soon.
  • Katherine if you think about it too. She's only twenty-four, and her fourth patient is a cancer sufferer whom she's very ill-equipped to help. The way he responds to her therapy can make you feel sorry for her. She even says on the phone that if she could ruin someone's life if she messes up.