The made-for-TV movie FIVE premiered on the Lifetime Channel on Monday, October 10. The movie consisted of five short films about women whose lives were impacted by breast cancer. Each movie was directed by a different well-known woman: Demi Moore, Jennifer Aniston, Penelope Spheeris, Alicia Keys, and Patty Jenkins. The goal of the movie was to give women with breast cancer hope for their futures. On October 6, Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore, and Alicia Keys were interviewed on Good Morning America about FIVE. In talking about breast cancer, Jennifer Aniston noted, “it can be dealt with, you can solve it, you can heal it.” Everyone involved with FIVE, from the directors to the actors, certainly portrayed that meaningful message of hope. However, each film examined this message in a different way because “each director has her own distinct fingerprint,” as Aniston commented in her GMA interview.
Before I saw the movie, I was curious whether each short film would be a separate story, or whether the stories would tie together somehow. It turned out that my second prediction was correct, as each breast cancer patient in the short films (except for the first film) had the same oncologist – a woman named Pearl, whose story began in the first film “Charlotte,” directed by Demi Moore.
“Charlotte” told the story of Pearl’s mother, Charlotte, who had breast cancer and how Pearl was shielded from this truth. Pearl was not allowed to see her mother, nor even learn that she had breast cancer. An interesting aspect of the film was that it was shot at the eye-level and point of view of young Pearl. This located the viewer in her naïve and frustrated situation and state of mind. On October 7, Demi Moore was interviewed on The View about FIVE. Moore commented on her choice to make `Charlotte’ about Pearl, saying, “When I read [the script], it wasn’t written from [Pearl’s] point of view, but I felt it was essential that we bring it down to her level.” This directing choice made “Charlotte” different the other films in FIVE because it was the only film that focused on the impacts of breast cancer on children.
The next film in the series, “Mia,” was directed by Jennifer Aniston, who was the genesis behind the whole project of creating FIVE. During her GMA interview, Jennifer Aniston expressed how meaningful this project was to her, describing her efforts as “powerful energy being put towards this one beautiful, beautiful project.” Aniston’s portion of the movie began with Mia’s second wedding, and worked backwards in different time increments of Mia’s life. It discussed Mia’s diagnosis with Stage Four breast cancer and the different experiences she had during that time, from holding a fake funeral for herself to being left by her husband, who did not want to support her emotionally because of her breast cancer. Mia told her husband, “I wish I could leave too, but I can’t since the cancer is inside my body, and I can’t leave my body. I guess that’s what dying is for.” However, Mia did not die; rather, she accomplished the extremely rare goal of surviving Stage Four breast cancer. Mia is a comedic take on breast cancer and it reminds the viewer that, while breast cancer is a serious disease, women should still try to make the best of their lives in whatever time they have left.
In the next film, “Cheyanne,” directed by Penelope Spheeris, the protagonis also struggled with keeping her husband while facing breast cancer. Cheyanne is a strippe; she is especially distraught over her treatment’s requirement of a mastectomy. She also worried that her husband would leave her because she would no longer have the same physical qualities that he had found attractive. However, to show Cheyanne that he would always be there for her, Cheyanne’s husband got rid of the physical quality that he found most attractive – his hair. The power of family support was the main theme in Cheyanne’s story, showing how such love can alleviate great pain.
The next film in the collection, “Lili,” directed by Alicia Keys, also dealt with this theme. Lili’s tribulations with breast cancer extended farther than just having the disease itself; Lili also struggled with trying to be an independent woman throughout her diagnosis and treatment, and not having to rely on family support. However, she learned from a male breast cancer patient that not everybody has family, and thus she should not complain about her family supporting her too much. Instead, she should be proud of and embrace that her family cares. During Alicia Keys’s interview on The View, she discussed the theme of family support, commenting that “In the end, you just feel how the whole family grows because of this experience.” I completely agree with Keys; if you allow your family to be close to you during a time of hardship, it not only helps alleviate the pain of the situation, but it also serves as a bonding experience.
FIVE comes full-circle with Pearl, the final film in the series, directed by Patty Jenkins. This was the most ironic film in the movie, as Pearl, the woman we met during her childhood and followed throughout the movie as the oncologist for Mia, Cheyanne, and Lili, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Pearl was worried that she would die of breast cancer like her mother did, but she did not want her daughter to be unaware of her situation, like she was of her mother’s situation as a child. With the help and support of her family, Pearl was able to power through breast cancer.
The movie ended with a “wall-kissing” ceremony at the hospital where Pearl worked. Each person who had survived breast cancer and was breast-cancer-free for five years got an opportunity to kiss a tile on a wall in the hospital and write an inspiring message on it. Aside from Charlotte, each of the women we met during FIVE attended this ceremony, meaning they all survived breast cancer. We watch Pearl take her turn in the ceremony, kissing a tile that bares the words “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
The movie certainly increased my knowledge about breast cancer, for it offers a candid portrayal of women affected by the disease. I am positive that it will give hope to women suffering through breast cancer, because they will see that they were not alone. In their Good Morning America interview, the three directors interviewed agreed that one of their main goals was to give people hope. Demi Moore commented, “If we can do that and walk away with just that, then we will have done a lot.” Jennifer Aniston added, “And that’s our job.”