Counter-programming in the summer. Love it! Decoding Annie Parker, a movie about early strides in Breast Cancer Research arrives on May 2nd. Samantha Morton plays the title character, a young mother who is diagnosed with breast cancer. She seeks answers as her husband (Aaron Paul, who sure is working a lot) struggles to understand/deal. A pioneering doctor (Helen Hunt) is also on the case in this true story.
We'll break down the trailer after the jump.
You are hot."
If only Hollywood thought so! She's such a great actress.
YES
• Remember how great Samantha Morton was in her hospital scenes in In America (2003) and as the mother of young children? Could that magic strike twice?
• We want more movies about female journeys so if we want them, we have to get out and support them.
• True Imaginary Fact: This screencap from the trailer is a letter I wrote. I'll read it for you since the type is small...
Dear Casting Directors of America,
I am writing to you as the Spokeperson for all Actressexuals of the world. I've enclosed a picture of two time Oscar nominee Samantha Morton above so that you can be reminded that she is a radiant beautiful actress. Not beautiful in the traditional actressy sense that you assume we all want every time, maybe, but consider variety in your casting decisions. The screen has room for real looking women, too. She's irreplaceable and full of mesmerizing contradictions: grounded (The Messenger) and yet heady (Morvern Callar), real (Control) and yet beyond reality (Minority Report), Madonna (In America) and yet Whore (Under the Skin). She is so gifted. Please don't let me keep thinking I can do your job better than you and start casting her regularly again.
Sincerely,
Nathaniel
NO
Breast Cancer - it's hilarious!
• I can't with Aaron Paul's hair in this trailer. Bad wigs can ruin whole movies... see also: X-Men movies and Nicolas Cage movies (not that the latter need any help being ruined)
• And why does the entire supporting cast read as broadly comic caricatures?
• Triumph of the Human Spirit movies can sometimes cause hives
• It's super awkward to put the meeting of Helen Hunt and Samantha Morton up front since the rest of the trailer makes you think that that's the ending. It's especially awkward up front because Hunt reads more like a politician with that scene's look and I was initially confused that she is the doctor. Even though yes yes the first words you hear are "Doctor King, Doctor King". My bad but the trailer starts really fast and you have to be pinpoint precise when you've only got 2 minutes to sell a ticket.
MAYBE SO
He compared you to an animated grasshopper."
• Helen Hunt was once wildly overrated and that Oscar win still stings but she was brilliant in The Sessions (nominated right here) so let's give her a shot again as we LOL at that description screencapped. It's eccentrically right somehow.
• Trailers have a way of simplifying everything and fearing their natural audience IF that audience happens to be a limited one. That might account for the manically Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy tone for a film with tough subject matter. So the bizarre music choices and knee slapper cuts might be disguising a warm melancholy drama with a few laughs about women struggling to make sense of cancer from both sides of the examining room.
Are you a Yes No or a Maybe So? On the basis of this trailer alone I'd lean "no" but I love Samantha Morton and rarely get to see her, so, Yes.