Unidas Pela Vida

Decoding Annie Parker tells the real life story of two women. Toronto housewife Annie Parker, a three time cancer survivor who believes that the cancer she has got and has killed various members of her family was due to more than just bad luck and environmental factors.

Geneticist Mary-Claire King who led a team of researchers for more than twenty years and found the breast cancer BRCA gene mutation which showed that cancer can be hereditary.

Samantha Morton as Annie Parker gets to fast forward her life as she meets and marries rocker and pool man Aaron Paul has a son, loses family members to cancer and fights the disease herself while all the time going through a parade of 1970s and 1980s costumes and wigs.

Helen Hunt gets the less interesting story of her fight for research and trying to prove a genetic link to breast cancer but her story makes for less than enthralling viewing so the focus always remain with Morton's story.

The film is underwhelming and rather becomes a true life movie of the week with its inherent clichés. The film is served by a strong performance from Samantha Morton who rises above a weak script. Helen Hunt is poorly served by the screenplay and the meeting between the two women comes across as laughable and disappointing. The fault lies with the director for not making the best of this story.

I recently had the opportunity of seeing Decoding Annie Parker at a charity benefit screening. It's a heart felt, inspirational movie about the journey of a cancer survivor and the scientist who discovered the gene mutation responsible for hereditary breast cancer. (The same gene mutation Angelina Jolie has). A tough subject handled deftly by the film maker. The story is an accurate and truthful depiction of a cancer patient's journey and had the audience both laughing and crying and eventually left them feeling uplifted and hopeful. No melodrama here. The acting performances were superb especially those of Samantha Morton who plays the cancer survivor and Aaron Paul who plays her husband. Helen Hunt was as always terrific. Rashida Jones was great too. Kudos to the film makers for making a movie on this subject which has unfortunately effected too many families.

Annie Parker (Samantha Morton) suffers many losses. Her mother, father, and older sister all died from cancer. It's the 1970's. She is obsessed with checking for lumps and eventually she also gets breast cancer. Her husband Paul (Aaron Paul) is a pool cleaner. Louise (Alice Eve) is her younger sister. Dr. Gold (Corey Stoll) suspects a genetic cause but he is refuted by more experienced doctor. At UC Berkeley, research genetic scientist Mary-Claire King (Helen Hunt) is trying to map the human genome but the task is overwhelming. Her team is on a long, winding search for the cause of breast cancer and the discovery of the responsible gene.

Morton and her side of the story is very compelling with surprising humor and infinite humanity. The Helen Hunt side is less compelling. I can think of several ways to increase the tension but her side is inherently less dramatic. It's more scientific and less humane. It could have enlightened some of the science but that may be asking too much. It leaves me to wonder if concentrating solely on Annie Parker would be more intriguing.

The subject matter is quite heavy but is told with sincerity and real-person humor. The title may seem a trifle misleading since the contact between Annie and the researcher is tangential at best -- they meet only once. The the "decoding" goes beyond finding and sequencing the BRCA1 gene. We witness the unwrapping of emotions and the development of a life-fulfilling spirit in Annie and many of the people to whom she is connected. Some relationships work, other don't, but at its core the film remains true to its belief in Annie's undying spirit. The only negative that keeps my review from being a 10 is that a few of the scenes in which the finding the BRCA1 gene proceeds are stiff and almost formulaic, in stark contrast to the reality of the rest of the film. Go see it and you will be talking about it to many of your friends.

"Decoding Annie Parker" is a low-budget movie based on the stories of two remarkable women: Annie Parker, a woman that fought her three cancers with courage; and the geneticist Mary Claire King, who believed breast cancer would have a hereditary basis and researched cancer for decades with her team. The intentions are great; Samantha Morton has top-notch performance, but the screenplay is tiresome and vague. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Unidas pela Vida" ("United by Life")