American actress Farrah Fawcett is diagnosed in 2006 with anal cancer. She rallies nearly a year later after seeking treatment overseas, but the reemergence of tumors in her liver makes the prognosis ultimately grim. What is anal cancer, how does it start? What's the difference between colon cancer and anal cancer...or rectal cancer? This documentary, filmed completely with hand-held devices, doesn't clue us in on the mysteries of the disease. Yes, it is insidious and sneaky--and unfair--but we don't get much information from the doctors. Still, the task here is to show Fawcett's struggle, and her bravery is admirable under intense circumstances (I don't think I could have made it through the needle-based operation which treats the liver). Fawcett proves to have a playful side in the face of adversity, throwing snowballs in Germany with her friend Alana Stewart or blowing out the candles on her birthday cake served by her doctors and pals. Her positive demeanor takes a huge hit upon learning that a special cancer treatment now being performed at UCLA did not work for her, and one sees clearly how hope and faith can only take a person so far (our fates lie helplessly in the hands of others: doctors, certainly, but mostly the Man upstairs). This television special doesn't hint at an underlying issue (that people without money, or celebrity, are not privy to the European advances in medicine that movie stars are, they cannot afford the treatments and pills and visits). The privileges that Fawcett has earned do prolong her life, and that extra time on Earth is indeed precious, yet "Farrah's Story" does make one think about all those others who were not even this fortunate.
