Rashida Jones (l) and Samantha Morton in Decoding Annie Parker (courtesy of Dorado Media) The movie weaves the story of Annie’s battle against cancer with that of Mary-Claire King (played by Helen Hunt), a pioneering genetic researcher hunting for the gene she alone believes is responsible for certain cases of breast cancer. The analysis confirmed it to be an inherited form of the disease. Which is, in a nutshell, this: After watching her mother and sister die of breast cancer in the ’60s and ’70s, Annie Parker (played by Samantha Morton) receives the same diagnosis in 1980 and eventually becomes one of the first women in the world to have her genes analyzed for breast cancer susceptibility (genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2). When Annie Parker opens in select theaters this summer, it will be because a group of writers, donors, and cancer advocates were committed to sharing the lessons of Annie’s story. No major studios were involved, and though it has a top-shelf cast (including Helen Hunt, Bradley Whitford, Rashida Jones, and Aaron Paul), the actors agreed to work for a fraction of their usual fees. (Held at the Directors Guild Theater, the premiere was a benefit for the American Cancer Society.) One thing was clear at last night’s New York premiere of Decoding Annie Parker, a movie about a woman with breast cancer: the film is a labor of love made by people who believe the dramatized true story they tell is important.
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