IT's ABOUT!

Courtesy of the Seattle Film Festival where Samantha Morton won BEST ACTRESS for her role here:

Based on true events, this touching film follows a 15-year war against a cruel illness, waged on both scientific and emotional fronts by a pair of women demonstrating extreme bravery under pressure. Annie Parker (Samantha Morton) is on intimate terms with breast cancer, having watched both her mother and sister succumb to it. When she herself is diagnosed with the disease, she struggles to hold her family together, displaying a force of spirit that belies the odds. Elsewhere, geneticist Mary-Claire King (Helen Hunt) is researching the idea of an undiscovered link between DNA and cancer, a process that finds her scrambling for both funding and the support of her disbelieving colleagues.

How the paths of these two women intersect is funny, irreverent, and heartwarming without the burn. Director Steven Bernstein's feature debut deftly balances the seriousness of the situation with the all-too-human response, finding unpredictable grace notes of beauty and wit during even the darkest of times. Featuring stellar performances by Morton, Hunt, and a first-rate supporting cast including Aaron Paul, Rashida Jones, Bradley Whitford, and Maggie Grace, Bernstein's film pays ample tribute to one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century as well as the people forever changed in its wake.