“50/50” is a movie about a 27-year-old guy who gets cancer. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Adam, the guy with cancer. Seth Rogen plays his friend and Anna Kendrick plays his pretty young shrink. Sadly, that’s all you need to know to figure out exactly how the movie goes.

At this point, most of us have a relative, friend or friend of a friend who’s battled with some form of cancer. Failing that, we’ve gone to Relay for Life, listened to an inspirational speech at a high school graduation or watched a sappy movie on Lifetime about a kid with leukemia.

The point is, the story is familiar. Someone gets sick. It’s unexpected and unfair. He’s scared. His friends are scared. No one really knows how to deal with it. He goes through the chemotherapy, which is awful. He’s faced with overall survival odds of 50/50 and the possibility of a surgery that may or may not work. He starts to realize that he might actually die.

Okay, so take that basic story, and add the actors I mentioned. Joseph Gordon-Levitt does the same thing he did in “(500) Days of Summer” as the fresh-faced nice guy who keeps getting more and more broken down until you just want to give him a hug and tell him it will be all right. In fact, a lot of the characters in the movie try to do just that, and Adam is understandably a bit weirded out.

Anna Kendrick repeats her character from “Up in the Air” as the sweet young thing who’s completely inexperienced at her job but tries really hard. The romance between her and Adam is nice but expected and a bit beside the point.

Seth Rogen is…well, Seth Rogen. He plays the same character in every movie—an overgrown frat boy who’s basically a good guy, just a bit preoccupied with beer and chicks. The character, Kyle, is obviously introduced as the comic relief, but surprisingly, he might be the best part of the movie. Because what would happen if that guy had to help his friend through a battle with cancer? Kyle spends a lot of time trying to get Adam to play the sympathy card to get laid and smoke his medical marijuana, but he’s honestly scared for his friend and willing to do whatever Adam asks of him.

There’s nothing wrong with the portrayal of cancer in “50/50;” it feels realistic. It’s also occasionally kind of funny and often kind of heart wrenching, but always just kind of. Cancer sucks. We all know that. If we’re supposed to spend our free time going through this journey with a fictional character, we need to get something out of it—some fresh perspective—and “50/50” just doesn’t quite manage to deliver.