On the Trail of a Gene That Kills – The New York Times
‘Decoding Annie Parker’ Follows a Breast Cancer Discovery “Decoding Annie Parker,” Steven Bernstein’s useful, high-minded docudrama about breast cancer, is a gawky mixture of medical tutorial and personal history. Ms. Parker, played by Samantha Morton with an air of crumpled dolefulness that masks a core of ferocious determination, is a Canadian living in Toronto whose mother and sister succumb to breast cancer, which she eventually develops herself. It was the first of her three bouts with cancer, all of which she survived. The screenplay...
read more‘Decoding Annie Parker’ traces discovery of breast cancer gene – Los Angeles Times
“Decoding Annie Parker,” starring Samantha Morton and Helen Hunt, traces the discovery of the breast cancer gene through the lives of two women — one who carries it, one who uncovers it. Based on two true stories, this modest indie with major ambitions is directed by veteran cinematographer Steven Bernstein, making a solid feature debut. He uses the barely intersecting lives of Annie Parker (Morton), who lost her mother and sister to the disease before being diagnosed with it herself, and geneticist Mary-Claire King (Hunt),...
read moreReview: ‘Decoding Annie Parker,’ 3.5 stars – Arizona Republic
Samantha Morton is outstanding as a woman with cancer desperate to find a genetic link to the disease, which killed her mother and sister. Annie Parker dreaded cancer until she got it, a diagnosis she knew was coming since family members died of the same disease. Her mother got it. Then her sister. The odds weighed heavily in favor of Annie suffering the same fate, right? Well, yes, we know that now. But not in the 1970s and early 1980s. That’s the time frame for “Decoding Annie Parker,” director Steven Bernstein’s...
read moreTackling Tragedy with a Smile – Philadelphia Inquirer
A fact-based story of medical science and personal tragedy – and perseverance - Decoding Annie Parker stars Samantha Morton as a woman whose world is haunted by death. First her mother succumbs to cancer, then her father. A close bond with her older sister (Marley Shelton) – as little girls they walked and talked, and balked at going into the room upstairs where a bogeyman dwelled – ends with her death, too. “My life was a comedy,” the real-life Parker is quoted at the movie’s start. “I just had to...
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