Decoding Annie Parker

By: Lisa Steinberg

Decoding Annie Parker is based on true events of a look into the research of breast cancer. Samantha Morton stars as Annie Parker, a Canadian woman in the 1970s who loses her mother early in life to breast cancer. Not much longer after that, she loses her father and then her older sister Joanie (Marley Shelton) succumbs to breast cancer. Annie becomes obsessed with checking herself, feeling as though she is destined for death due to this illness.

Annie’s struggles lead her to a strained relationship with her husband Paul (Aaron Paul) and to lash out at her young son. When Annie finds a lump in her breast, she receives the news she has dreaded all her life, it is cancer. She undergoes surgery and decides that she is going to explore every avenue to help figure out how breast cancer is hereditary. She befriends a doctor and the two put their heads together to try to come up with a map. Meanwhile, Dr. Mary-Claire King (Helen Hunt) and her research team in another part of the world are also racking their brains and doing the work to try and figure out almost the exact same thing, how breast cancer is hereditary and what the genetic markers may be. She is tested and struggles with finding funding and the link to help women who are stricken with this undiscriminating illness. Other standout performances include Aaron Paul as the grief stricken husband who feels helpless with his wife and Rashida Jones stars as a relentless nurse who befriends Annie.

Morton’s performance as Annie is both gripping and harrowing as Annie is constantly looking for hope in the face of death. She is understating with her power and poignancy, giving life to a woman who can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hunt is strong and compelling in her performance, you root for Mary-Claire’s fight and despair when obstacles stand in the path of decoding. Together these two, and the tugging story, make a movie that is important for women globally not to miss.

Decoding Annie Parker is in theaters starting May 2nd.