The big C

50/50

Crit

I really wanted to like this--Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anna Kendrick are among my favorite youngsters in the movies, and Anjelica Huston is one of my favorites in the dwindling demographic of Older Than I--and it was a pleaser of a larger-than-usual 5 p.m. crowd, so I felt really curmudgeonly, but from the stacked deck (I'm using that expression a lot of late, aren't I?) of the Doctor with the Bedside Manner from Hell to the blithe tolerance of behavior from the Rogen character ranging from grossly insensitive to reprehensible right down to the childish destruction of a piece of art produced by a former loved one now a hated one, I just failed to find my place.

Coincidentally (no, I swear: it's a coincidence; there's nothing to be read into it), I've just started watching The Big C, and while yeah, sure, I admit that the mere presence of Laura Linney carries weight that no one in this film can approach, it's just a lot smarter and subtler and, well, more grown-up, and that's not just to do with the ages of the patients.

Trailers

• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1--Bellamary's baby! "He has his father's teeth . . . "
• Like Crazy--Young, pretty people in love, with visa problems.
• Man on a Ledge--Misdirection heist.