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This is what Kyle (Seth Rogen) blurts when his best friend Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) tells him he has 50-50 chance of surviving the cancer that’s hit him out of nowhere.

If you’ve ever had the dubious pleasure of hearing the percentages on a healthy recovery from your doctor, you will agree that mathematics don’t have quite the same purity when your neck is on the line.

Scripted by Will Reiser (an old pal of Rogen’s from their days on Da Ali G Show) and inspired by his own scarily early run-in with the Big C, 50/50 is a lively departure from the usual terminal clichés. Partly that’s because Adam is still in his mid-twenties when he’s diagnosed. Not that that’s any guarantee – just look at Gus Van Sant’s painfully whimsical Restless. But Reiser, Rogen and director Jonathan Levine (The Wackness; All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) look for the humour in the situation, and what’s more they find it without much difficulty.

Admittedly some of the earlier scenes are pitched a little uncertainly, but the movie finds its feet shortly after Adam gets his diagnosis, and the longer it goes on the more secure it gets.

Levine et al don’t sugarcoat the severity of the situation. Not that Adam suffers the kind of weight-loss you might expect, but this is a relatively rare cancer movie that is at pains to stress how disabling the condition is. The exhaustion, the sheer relentlessness of chemo regime, even its adverse effect on the libido, all these aspects find their proper place in the film.

Underplaying effectively, Gordon-Levitt doesn’t give us histrionics but stillness and calm – or what may be numbed denial and dismay.

The drama grows from his relationships: with his rather aloof girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard – who seems to be shooting for a villain of the year award with this role and The Help); his loyal but immature buddy (Rogen); his awkward trainee therapist (Anna Kendrick); his new found cancer ward pals (Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer); and – best of all – with his difficult mother (Anjelica Huston).

Over the course of his treatment, Adam finds deeper and more honest intimacy than he has known before, in large part because he’s compelled to be more honest with himself.

Rogen is essentially the comic relief here, and he seems to relish being back in a sidekick role; more relaxed and natural than we’ve seen him for a while. His camaraderie with Adam may be tinged with bluster and male chauvinism, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel true.

The plotting is slick and not exactly unpredictable, but Levine is a safe pair of hands. You will laugh and cry at all the right moments, and most likely feel a bit better about things afterwards. Who could ask for more?