Amy and I didn't hate this story of a determined cancer patient interwoven with the work of the scientific team who discovered the BRCA gene. We watched it at home Christmas Eve because Phil had told me days before about the website and app Kanopy which allows us to stream movies with a library card account number. It is based on the true stories of Parker and Dr. Mary-Claire King and was, as you may have noticed, released theatrically four and a half years ago.
Samantha Morton (last blogged for The Messenger in 2009) is terrific in the emotional title role as is Helen Hunt (most recently in these pages for 2012's The Sessions which earned her an Oscar nomination) as the businesslike scientist King. Aaron Paul (last blogged for Smashed a few months before this movie's release) has been, like Morton and Hunt, recognized for his work in this picture.
This was director/co-writer Steven Bernstein's (cinematographer on Monster (2003)) first time directing a feature (another one followed), and the debuts of co-writers Adam Bernstein and Michael Moss as well. The timeline can be hard to follow (her hairstyles don't help). It was helpful to read later that Annie was born in 1951.
Steven Bramson's (new to me) pleasant soundtrack can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music.
Clearly we didn't check Rotten Tomatoes, with critics averaging 56% and audiences at 41, before watching this. But we weren't sorry we did.
No comments:
Post a Comment