My Sister's Keeper

Is it surprising that Hallmark would put out anything less than excellent? And is it surprising that Kathy Bates would pull off another Oscar-Winning performance?

Kathy Bates stars as a woman diagnosed at age 16 with a schizo-effective disorder. Trying to go about a normal life is difficult for her. Elizabeth Perkins plays her younger sister, trying to lead a normal life but has always felt an obligation towards her sister. On top of this, Perkins' character finds that trying to carry on a romance is very difficult, in light of her sister's needs.

This is definitely a must-see movie! Then again, with Kathy Bates and Hallmark teamed together, how can one go wrong????

It's so nice to see popular culture finally coming out of the dark ages in addressing mental health issues. This movie did an excellent job of conveying the conflicts that exist among the mentally ill and their families, without beating the viewer over the head with a sentimental sledgehammer, or falling into the all-too-familiar trap of turning mental illness into great melodrama. (Which serves only to further stigmatize those who are most harmed by stigma.) This was about realistic characters coping with realistic emotions and issues, and did it in a way that gently informed and educated the viewer. This was a thinking person's film, not a "woman in danger" TV chick flick.

Kathy Bates' performance as a woman coping with a severe form of bipolar disorder was a wonder. We saw a woman, not a disorder, and she made her character come alive. She helped us see that those with mental illness have hopes and dreams too, and long to fulfill a purpose in their lives. Elizabeth Perkins was also fine as the conflicted "healthy" sister, struggling to find a balance between living an active and successful "normal" life, while also respecting the needs of her struggling sister. We see her sister's illness through her eyes, and she shows us the pain and hardship this illness causes families while also creating opportunities for a type of grace to break through. A balance is achieved in the end, gently and subtly, like these characters will continue working on perfecting the balancing process long after our window into their lives has closed. No TV-movie loose ends are tied up here, but the ending is moving, textured, and appropriate, nonetheless.

My only gripe is that parts of the chronology are choppy and leave you feeling as though you missed something. A critical relationship, for example, simmers through most of the movie, and then suddenly changes radically near the end, without much plot or character development. However, considering all that is done so well here, it's a small complaint.

Hats off to the writers, the director, and actors for a job well done.

OK, the title of this review may be a bit misleading. I titled it as such because this film hits me so close to home, but in my case it would be My Brother's Keeper. There are so many scenes in this film that parallel very closely or often exactly the situations my spouse and I have been dealing with for the last 25 or more years it made watching this film almost an additional helping of our reality. The rollercoaster ride from lucid to delusional, the resentment, the heaping of guilt, the unknowing of what you are going to get from one conversation to the next, I could go on and on.

A couple of complaints I will lodge probably reflect more on our situation than the film. First the portrayal of the social worker involvement was somewhat overdone or maybe that was nearer to the experience they were trying to reflect. We also thought the ratio of lucid to delusional was skewed to heavily toward lucid. Finally even though Kathy Bates handled the back and forth required to play this role, I thought she spoke a little to quickly to be a believable schizo-affective/bipolar person. In our experiences many persons affected with these disorders are deliberate and look at you while they process the conversation and then communicate their thoughts. Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys they are not.

This film just scratches the surface of dealing with a family member with a mental illness, but it does so without being too depressing.