My Sister's Keeper

(Synopsis) Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian Fitzgerald (Jason Patric) have just been informed that their young daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) has leukemia, and that she only has a few years to live. The doctor suggests to the parents that they try an unorthodox medical procedure of producing another child in a test-tube that would be a perfect match as a donor for Kate. Sara will try anything to save Kate, and they have a new baby Anna (Abigail Breslin) to be used as a donor for Kate. The first thing they use is blood from the umbilical cord for Kate. As years go on, the doctors must take bone marrow from Anna to give to Kate. At age 11, the next thing Anna must give to her sister is a kidney. Anna has had enough of all of these medical procedures, and she decides to sue her parents for medical emancipation and the right to decide how her body will be used. The whole family is being torn apart by Anna's decision because everyone knows what will happen to Kate if she doesn't get a new kidney.

(My Comment) Everyone knows from the movie trailer that the story is about a young girl who has cancer. You would think that it would be a depressing movie, but you would be wrong. It is a story of some of the choices we make in life. Having a test-tube baby as body parts for another child was a choice made by the parents. Anna wanting to stop giving her body to her sister was a choice. As with all choices, there are consequences. Kate will die without a new kidney. There are many very hard choices in life and in death that we must make, and this is a good movie to show you the way. Diaz as the pragmatic lawyer who was fighting to the very end for her daughter lost focus on life, and the rest of her family. I believe that this is Diaz's best part and performance as an actress. Sofia Vassilieva played Kate, who was in pain for most of her life. Sofia played Kate so well that you could see the helplessness in her eyes as she fights for her life. Anna was also part of this pain, and Abigail Breslin played this part as a professional. Actually, the whole cast was outstanding throughout the film. I loved the collaged scrapbook with voice-over and flashbacks that Kate made to give to her mother. This is a good movie to see with your loved ones. (New Line Cinema, Run Time 1:49, Rated PG-13) (10/10)

One of the most interesting movie going experiences came when toward the end of this film, the noise of someone blowing their nose filled the theater. A soft giggle then filled the theater. I hate to say that this is one of "those movies," where you know there's a chance that you might end up in tears by the end, but I'm afraid it's true. The struggle between life and death, not only for middle child Kate, but also for the whole family, is heartwarming. Cameron Diaz, takes a serious turn, somehow she seems very comfortable in this role. And Sofia Vassilieva shows both sides of cancer. The heartache and the pain, but also the beauty in how tragedy can bring families together.

The movie was actually very well-put together, but they left out several important things that were in the novel, including the existence of a child advocate, the way the court found out about the reason for her suit, and the fact that in the novel, Anna lived at the fire station for most of the trial because her mother was the opposing council. Let's not forget the fact that they added characters --the aunt and the various other family members. They even changed the end of the story! The majority of the details remained the same, such as Campbell's condition, the name of his service dog, and most of the listed medical procedures Anna endured, but there are still depths of the story that are left out because of the narration style (they did well at the beginning, but they tried to keep it all from Anna's POV after that, and that doesn't work for this story...) This is actually one of the reasons I wasn't sure I wanted to watch the movie: Hollywood is prone to ruining good stories. The movie was wonderful, as long as you don't try to reconcile it too closely with the novel it's based on.

Although the film differs from the book, it is still amazing. The acting was believable and you could really see the heartbreak of the family. But, there were also some funny moments, making the movie slightly uplifting. I am a huge fan of the book, and if i had been expecting to see on the screen exactly what is in the book i would have been disappointed. However, the film has earnt the 10 stars respectively and should, in my opinion, receive an Oscar. I can tell already that the actress who plays Kate will go far in the film industry and i feel that Cameron Diaz has done herself proud, discarding her comedy label. Overall, a brilliant film with a strong message.

Nick Cassavetes is almost like a walking advertisement for Kleenex at this point. After such shameless melodramtic weepers like "John Q" and "The Notebook", I wasn't so keen on seeing "My Sisters Keeper", based on the book by Jodi Picoult. Yet, every once in a while, a chick flick comes along that touches the chick in every man.

Cameron Diaz plays Sara Fitgerald, who along with her husband Brian (Jason Patric), makes the decision of genetically engineering a child who will be a direct match to their leukemia-stricken 2-year-old daughter Kate. Abigail Breslin plays the engineered child at age 11. Her name is Anna, who since the age of 5, has had blood taken from her and been put thru medical procedures to help keep Kate alive. Anna loves Kate, played as a teenager by Sofia Vassileva, but when her parents want to give Kate one of Anna's kidneys, Anna finally says enough. Sure that no one is looking out for her interests, Anna hires a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) and sues for the right to her own body. Sara, a woman who has made caring for Kate her full-time job, is upset while Brian understands. Meanwhile, Kate feels guilty that her disease is tearing the family apart.

Cassavetes and co-screenwriter Nicholas Leven are dealing with a straight-up tear-jerker here but it's astonishingly free of heavyhandedness and it cuts deep with probing questions and real emotion. These are characters with feelings and concerns, torn between such complicated issues as saving a daughter by experimenting with another, sacrificing your own body even though you know it will diminish quality of life, and dealing with how a disease can burden a family. The movie uses flashbacks (such as Kate being diagnosed as a young child, her parents being given the choice of invitro, and a very young Anna disturbingly forced into operations) and forwards (Kate lying in a hospital bed, looking at a scrapbook of her family) that add dimension. As do the switching of narrators, each character getting a chance to offer their points of view and feelings about how the diagnosis, and everything after it, has effected them.

Unfortunately it's also going in a lot of different directions, and add in a dyslexic and lost-in-the-shuffle brother (Evan Ellingson), and it's sometimes hard for Cassavete's to keep track of all of them. The second act, in particular, has very little to do with the Sara-Anna conflict and the more light-hearted scenes, such as the family frolicking happily on a beach together, seem odd because you feel like there is some contentiousness between Sara and Anna that really doesn't come out til the ending courtroom scene.

However these are small problems rendered almost excusable by powerful performances. Abigail Breslin has surpassed Dakota Fanning in all-out maturity, juggling her characters fears for her own well being with the remorse of not being strong enough for her sister. And Diaz is strong-willed but obsessive, perfect as a one-track minded mother so intent on trying to keep one daughter alive that she's not even thinking about anything else. Jason Patric is the open and understanding father and Alec Baldwin is good comic relief, playing a lawyer so cocky, he sued God. And Sofia Vassileva is nothing short of powerhouse, her heartbreaking performance rising above all the cancer make-up and bloody vomitting and nosebleeds to find Kate's burdensome guilt and brave soul. And only stone-hearts won't share in her joy as she gets dressed up and goes to prom with another terminally ill boy (Thomas Dekker).

I'm not saying this movie isn't a cheap excuse to make you cry, but as far as cheap excuses go, this one is richly made. "My Sister's Keeper" is as surprising and heartfelt a piece of work as I've seen all year long, and the acting is about as good as it comes. With this and his previous, "Alpha Dog", Cassavete's signals himself as a real filmmaker as he rarely ever hits a false note. In a year filled with movies that I've seen fail at finding the humanity in their stories, this one is a keeper.