Poignant tale of a mother's tough decision

A story in The New York Times last month made me catch my breath. It was about 33-year-old Deborah Lindner who refused to have breast cancer ravage her. So she opted to have a mastectomy.

Now a short documentary, "Dear Talula" (7:30 p.m. Tuesday on Cinemax) delivers an equally emotional, but this time heartwarming, punch. Lori Benson, 38, is happily enjoying motherhood with new daughter Talula when the doctor tells her she has breast cancer. So the filmmaker opts to chronicle her intimate ordeal, recording everything with a camera and inviting her friends to follow her as well.

It's a very poignant, well-told story about something all-too-familiar for many of us. And thankfully Benson knows how to make a film that's about herself but that doesn't come off as narcissistic. Or, too sentimental. It's her candor that makes us care about her, even if you have no idea what Tamoxifen is. And when you go along for her journey you feel less like a voyeur and more like one of her close friends crossing fingers that it all ends well.

We're with Benson when she's in a cab and giving her family history to the doctor over the phone. A younger sister died from breast cancer when she was 36, she tells her doctor. When Benson steps out of the cab, the driver wishes her luck.

We're with Benson when she starts doings all sorts of "girly things" before her surgery. A kind of "insane" ritual she thinks might protect her, she explains. And we're with Benson when she breast feeds Talula for the last time before her mastectomy and then after, when the child, in her mother's arms, won't stop screaming.

Through chemotherapy, the wearing of her lucky red shirt, the taking of "Playboy" to her plastic surgeon ("Is this a B-cup?" she asks him).

Truly, a lovely little film.

Florangela Davila: 206-464-2916 or fdavila@seattletimes.com