Cancer Cinema-thon

I like movies.  I always have.  Perhaps it's because I grew up in a movie-watching family...rentals, the occasional illegal dubbing on our full-size VHS camcorder, occasionally HBO and/or Cinemax subscriptions, and "going to the movies" as an occasional weekend activity.  To this day, I gladly will go to a movie myself, own too many now seemingly irrelevant DVDs (thanks college Columbia House subscription...), have given RedBox way too many 'extra' day charges, and thanks to Netflix have seen a lot of terrible movies.  So, on this weekend of being alone and with no company, something I was sort of looking forward to, I did something that I don't know if my past visitors would have approved of...I had a cancer-thon.

Thanks to the internet (Google search: best cancer movies), I was able to supplement my current knowledge with a few movies I didn't know about.  They all ended up vary-ing in how "cancer-y" they are, which was fine by me. Some old, some new, lots of dying, but lots of surviving as well.  Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Here's the weekend in review:

Movie: 50/50
Year: 2011
Starring: Joseph Gordon Levitt, Seth Rogen (Anna Kendrick, Ron Howard's daughter)
Watched: Friday night, Amazon Rental (finished Saturday at work)
Synopsis: Youngish Seattle hipster gets spinal cancer, deals with his best friend, girlfriend, mom, therapist.  He lives.
Cancer-y Level: 8/10
Thoughts: This one was actually recommended by a guy I work with at Runners Plus who has gone through his own cancer battles.  After I started it, I realized that I had seen it before (no surprise...I have friends that kind of hate RedBoxing with me because I've "seen everything", I'm thinking of you Lex). I see why he did...it's good.  A nice mix of comedy, drama, and actually fairly realistic (based on my experience) of the cancer-experience.  Plus, I sort of want to marry Seth Rogen, and despite an early hatred, Anna Kendrick has grown on me.  I started the weekend on a high note with this one.

Movie: The Fault in Our Stars
Year: 2014
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgott, (blonde chick from Jurassic Park, Willem DaFoe)
Watched: Saturday night, Amazon Rental
Synopsis: As if you didn't already know, girl with cancer (thyroid, metastasized to lung) meets boy with cancer (bone).  Girl falls in love with boy (boy probably started it).  Boy dies.
Cancer-y Level: 8/10
Thoughts: This was an inevitable one.  I hadn't read the book, and somehow missed this one in the theater.  I'm not a huge Shailene fan (despite starring in one of my favorite ABC Family indulgences, Secret Life of the American Teenager), but found her to play the character well in this one.  Kids with cancer tends to be more sad than adults with cancer (as I'd soon really find out), but I liked both of these kids' attitudes towards it.  Horribly unrealistic, and I thought a lot was lost with the handwritten popup texts (reminded me of Teen Mom, speaking of TV indulgences), but overall a decent flick.  I'm not going out and getting tattoos of any of the lines (like some people apparently have).  I cried, but I cried in nearly all that I watched, sort of part of the purpose of me watching.  This was the only "current" movie of the weekend though, so it felt real in that sense (iPhones vs flip phones or lack of cell phones in general).  However, not sure how those kids managed to get at home chemo!  #jealous

Movie: My Sister's Keeper
Year: 2009
Starring: Abigail Breslin, Cameron Diaz, (Alec Baldwin, the dark haired guy from Sleepers)
Watched: Saturday night, Amazon Rental
Synopsis: Girl has leukemia.  Parents create little sister to be able to donate blood, bone marrow, etc.  Girl then sues parents, but yeah, spoiler...maybe she isn't doing it for the reasons you think!
Cancer-y Level: 9.5/10
Thoughts: This one won for the most cry-inducing of the weekend.  Was an interesting story, again, some comic relief but mostly just a heart-warming story.  It's based off the Jodi Piccult book, which is definitely in the beach read genre, though I'm not sure this would be a relaxing read.  By this time in the weekend I realized that some of the realities of cancer (i.e. bills) are not really cinema material. Apparently an LA fireman's salary and former legal work affords years of treatment, IVF, huge house, nice cars, etc.   Guess that's why it's a movie.  Abigail Breslin is a pretty crazy talents young actress in this one and it includes the song that although cliche, I could see playing as a first-dance wedding song one day.  There was also a bit of life story between the cancer ridden sister and another cancer patient (who dies).  So the young love theme ran strong for these ones...which yes, maybe made me feel lonely and like I wanted a fellow cancer patient to fall in love with.  However, given that the guy died in both, no thanks.

Movie: Stepmom
Year: 1998
Starring: Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Ed Harris (Jena Malone and Liam Aiken as the kids)
Watched: Saturday night, Amazon Rental
Synopsis: Sarandon has cancer (breast?  do they ever really say?) and tries to learn to let the new stepmom take care of the kids.  She dies (presumably).
Cancer-y Level: 6/10
Thoughts: Another predictable one on the list, and one I definitely had seen multiple times before.  This started a less cancer-y trend...it's there.  There are some scans shown, some doctor's appointments, but the cancer is really just a vehicle of sorts for the story, it isn't THE story.  Even the IMDB synopsis just states "terminally ill" rather than cancer patient.  Apparently, Julia Roberts has been in a few cancer flicks, though this was the only one on my list for the weekend.  Anyways, you've probably seen this one so I won't comment too much, other than, if you don't get a little choked up at the end when the dying mom says "Now one with the whole family...Isabelle?" during the Christmas picture shoot, you have no soul.

Movie: Love Story
Year: 1970
Starring: Ali MacGraw, Ryan O'Neal
Watched: Sunday Morning, Netflix
Synopsis: Rich boy meets poor girl in college.  They fall in love, he separates from family, she gets sick and dies.
Cancer-y Level: 3/10
Thoughts: This is a classic movie but I don't think I ever saw it.  The soundtrack is more than familiar as I or someone in my family had a music box that played it and I think we also had the sheet music for the piano.  Regardless, the love story themes of Saturday night sparked my interest in this.  Given that it was over 40 years ago, there were definitely some differences on the medical side.  For one, they never say the words cancer, it's really just presumed that it's leukemia that afflicts Jenny.  The general life differences also (the doctor told her husband of her diagnosis and not her...um, ok) were apparent.  So low on the cancer scale, high on the drama.  It's really simple really, and I think in a way, that does make it great.  There's the romance, the family bonds, etc.  Simple yet complete.  The line "Love means never having to say you're sorry" is pretty great.

Movie: Terms of Endearment
Year: 1983
Starring: Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger (Jack Nicholson, Jeff Daniels, John Lithgow)
Watched: Sunday Morning, Netflix
Synopsis: Mother/Daughter story.  Daughter has sort of troubled marriage, mother falls in love with boy next door.  Eventually mother discovers lump in lymph node and has cancer (can't remember what kind, or even if they say).
Cancer-y Level: 4/10
Thoughts: Another classic that I'm pretty sure I've never seen but know the soundtrack too (someone definitely played this one on the piano...although maybe it was the one from St.Elmo's Fire, they are really similar ).  When reading the title, I always just think of playing Scattergories with my family and having to ask "what does 'terms of endearment' mean?" "honey, sweetie, baby".  Watched this one while finally cleaning so wasn't super into it.  Again, crossover themes with over movies (the over-protective mother, distant father...god social norms are hilarious) and clearly talented actors.  The cancer doesn't crop up till pretty far along in the movie and again, takes a back seat overall.

Movie: Sweet November
Year: 2001 (sidenote...fun part of looking things up on IMDB, realizing how many movies are remakes...like this one of a 1968 film)
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Charlize Theron (the boy from Stepmom, the jerk from Ally McBeal, Jason Isaacs from Harry Potter and the Patriot)
Watched: Sunday, Amazon
Synopsis: He's a career driven guy, she's a free spirited girl.  She convinces him to live with her for a month to "fix" him.  Surprise, she has cancer and dies.
Cancer-y Level: 4/10
Thoughts: I've seen this one before too, but never really paid too much attention to the cancer parts.  I'm not sure why she has so many medications to be honest...seems like a bit of a hoarder to me.  Anyways, another love story that uses the sickness as a backdrop.  And man, a proposal after like 2 weeks of knowing someone! WTF.  But this whole movie is pretty ridiculously unrealistic, so you know, whatever.  I'm sad I paid the $2.99 rental on Amazon on this one...felt like pretty much every other romance movie I subject myself to on Netflix.

Movie: Life as a House
Year: 2001
Starring: Kevin Kline, Hayden Christensen (the English Patient lady, the girl from Stepmom, Mary Steenbergen)
Watched: Sunday, Amazon
Synopsis: Divorced guy loses his job, finds out he has terminal cancer.  Tries to reconcile with his troubled son and ex-wife.  Builds a house for the summer. Additional characters in the mom and daughter who live next door.
Cancer-y Level: 4/10
Thoughts: Pretty sure I actually had to watch this in college in English class...  Again, another family story with the disease really just providing a beginning (diagnosis), middle (when he tells people) and end (dying in the hospital).  The troubled youth (who pimps himself out and somehow that goes largely undiscussed, even when he ends up using his pants down in a car experience as blackmail against the angry neighbor) who ends of finding his way, broken family reunited, etc.  Nice thing about this one...lots of pretty ocean and sunset views, and after many years of obsessive HGTV watching, I was especially interested in some of the architectural details of the house they build.

There you go...eight "cancer" movies.  I also ordered a DVD ($5) of Wit a TV movie that was on a few of the "Best of" lists I consulted.  So what did my half-day's worth of movie watching do for me?  One, it helped me cry.  Seriously, I needed to, and it did, and that was great.  Two, while at times it made me sad (missing my dad, feeling lonely being single, being away from family, etc), most also just made me truly appreciative of the functional and fully supportive network of friends and family that I have.

Mostly, these movies all did what I usually look for movies to do...they provided an escape.  I was able to get some work done on Sunday, relax on Saturday (after getting work done and working at the store all Saturday morning), and take a trip back in time to the 70's, 80's, and 90's.  It didn't feel like torture, and that's probably because as much as this cancer sucks, I'm not dying...I'm not figuring out what to do with my kids, or how to tell the love of my life, and I'm not a teenager.   In a way, these movies helped me remember that, and that's a good thing.

A day of chosen rather than forced relaxing and binge watching (and cleaning, and baking (apple crisp!) and avoiding 'real work' but doing some) also felt really normal, and given that life hasn't been that normal lately, it was a welcome change.

Also, I think we should start a new game of Six Steps to Cancer a la Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon since there are a number of crossover characters in these movies...any takers? :)