| Director | Jonathan Levine |
|---|---|
| Budget | $8 million |
| Box office | $41.1 million |
Mild-mannered Adam Lerner is a 27-year-old public radio journalist in Seattle. His loyal but immature best friend Kyle disapproves of his girlfriend Rachael, an artist. After experiencing severe pains in his back, Adam is diagnosed with schwannoma neurofibrosarcoma, a cancerous tumor in his spine, and must undergo chemotherapy.
Searching on the Internet, Adam sees that the survival rate for his diagnosis is 50/50. After he reveals this to his emotional mother Diane, who is already nursing her Alzheimer's-stricken husband Richard, she offers to care for him. Adam declines, as Rachael has already promised to do so.
At one of his treatments, Adam meets Mitch and Alan, two older cancer patients also undergoing chemo, and they become friends, bonding through cannabis-laced macaroons. Rachael is uncomfortable with the idea of accompanying him during his treatments and is often late picking him up. She also gets Adam a retired racing greyhound named Skeletor as a pet.
Throughout Adam's struggle, Kyle attempts to keep up his morale, helping Adam shave his head and using his friend's illness to pick up women. While on a date, Kyle sees Rachael kissing another man at a gallery, so later forces her to confess her infidelity to Adam, who breaks up with her. He follows Kyle's suggestion, and they use his illness to pick up two women at a bar.
Meanwhile, Adam is being treated by a young, inexperienced therapist, Katherine McKay, a Ph.D. candidate doing the clinical aspect of her thesis at the hospital. While their relationship and sessions begin unevenly, he slowly opens up to her. After she drives him home following a chemo session, they develop a rapport, blurring their professional and personal relationship. She helps Adam understand his mother's situation: loved ones can also feel stress like the patient, which allows Adam to repair the rift between him and his mother.
When Mitch dies, Adam's mortality hits him, causing him to lash out at Katherine verbally. Shortly after, he is informed that the chemo has not worked. so he needs to undergo a risky surgery. The night before the operation, Adam argues with an intoxicated Kyle, demanding that he let him drive his car even though he has never learned and has no driver's license.
After a near miss, Adam breaks down and accuses Kyle of being more concerned with using the cancer for his own gain than taking his condition seriously. Adam then calls Katherine and tells her he wishes she was his girlfriend, but he also says he is tired of being sick and wants his cancer to be over.
That night, when dropping off Kyle, Adam finds the book Facing Cancer Together from their trip to a bookstore, where Kyle had also picked up a shop clerk. The book is filled with notes, highlighted paragraphs, and turned-down pages. He realizes that Kyle sincerely cares about him and has earnestly tried to help him since his diagnosis, and has merely continued to treat Adam like he always had.
The next day, Kyle drops Adam off at the hospital, where Adam embraces him for being a good friend and apologizes for the previous night. After saying his tearful farewells to his family, he undergoes surgery. Katherine goes to the waiting room and inadvertently meets Adam's parents and Kyle during the wait.
After the surgery, they are told that although the bone degradation was worse than they believed, the surgeons removed the tumor successfully, and Adam will recover. Sometime later, he prepares for a date with Katherine while Kyle encourages him and bandages the incision on his back. After Kyle leaves, Katherine asks, "Now what?" and Adam smiles, finally cancer-free.