Helen Hunt Archives - Parallax View

[Written for The Herald]

There are two parts to the title Dr. T and the Women. Let’s take each part separately.

The women are the ladies in the orbit of Dr. Sully Travis, a Dallas gynecologist. Dr. T has a wife (Farrah Fawcett) who is quietly losing her mind, a sister-in-law (Laura Dern) with Ivana Trump inclinations, and two daughters. The elder daughter (Kate Hudson, of Almost Famous), a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, is about to get married, causing much hullabaloo; the younger daughter (Tara Reid, from American Pie) gives tours of the JFK assassination plaza, and sees conspiracies wherever she looks. A golf pro (Helen Hunt) at Dr. T’s country club also figures in his life, as a possible new direction for his emotional energy.

Samantha Morton, the fine and oddly underemployed British actress, won the Best Actress prize from the Seattle International Film Festival last year. Her performance is just now emerging for a regular run, as Decoding Annie Parker finally turns up in theaters. The film is based on a true story about the search for the gene that causes breast cancer, and one woman’s experience with her cancer-riddled family. These parallel plots travel from the early 1970s to the recent past.

Morton plays Annie Parker, a young woman already anxious about cancer — her mother and sister (Marley Shelton) have contracted the disease. Eventually (this is not much of a spoiler) she is diagnosed with breast cancer herself; the struggle takes a toll on her marriage to a cheerful but immature musician (Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad, quite good here).

Continue reading at The Herald

Tag: Helen Hunt

2000 Eyes: Dr. T and the Women

Review: ‘Decoding Annie’