Lifetime’s film FIVE tells the intertwined stories of 5 different women and their battles with breast cancer. Each story was directed by a different female director: Jennifer Aniston, Alicia Keys, Demi Moore, Patty Jenkins and Penelope Spheeris. This could’ve ended up a sappy melodrama. But instead it’s funny, honest, relevant, and poignant.
The film opens with a child, Pearl, confused over her mother’s death from cancer, then follows Pearl’s journey as an oncologist to four other terminally ill women, and ends with a grown-up Pearl (Jeanne Tripplehorn) stricken with the disease.
Along the way, we meet Mia (played by Patricia Clarkson) whose reaction to her sudden and unexpected remission from Stage 4 breast cancer is not exactly what you expect and yet so utterly human. In preparation for what she expected to be her inevitable death, she managed to do everything she couldn’t do while alive — like tell off people and blow all of her money. Awkward. This witty piece was written by Wendy West and seems like it was fated to land in the hands of director Jennifer Aniston and performed by Patricia Clarkson, both of whom are pros at the subtle line between what makes you laugh and what makes you cry.
Another stand-out is Lili, played by Rosario Dawson, a strong, stubborn woman with a strong, stubborn sister (Tracee Ellis Ross) and a strong, stubborn mother (the hilarious tour-de-force Jenifer Lewis), who is diagnosed with a strong, stubborn disease that she stubbornly thinks she can deal with on her own. Nu-uh. Mom and sis got your same genes, girl. They won’t be leaving you to fight this battle alone! Written by Jill Gordon and directed by Alicia Keys, the dynamics between the three women will manage to make you laugh while at the same time moving you, which is what good girl time does.
Women know how to get a story right.
The film aired on Lifetime TV last night, with re-airings scheduled this week, and can also be found streaming on www.mylifetime.com or DIRECTLY here.
