Movie Review: My Sister's Keeper

By FOX43tv.com's Film Reviewer, Stephanie Cooke

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"My Sister's Keeper" is the story of a family torn at the seams due to childhood cancer.  The film is based on the best-selling novel by Jodi Picoult, which I will get back to.

Kate is the older daughter and middle child in the family -- played by Sofia Vassilieva. She was diagnosed with leukemia as a toddler.  Her older brother, Jesse (Evan Ellingson) is not a match to be able to help her.  So in order to save Kate's life, her parents embark on an unethical journey.  Through in vitro fertilization, mom Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Dad Brian (Jason Patric), have another daughter, Anna (Abigail Breslin).  She is kind of genetically engineered to be a perfect donor of blood and stem cells at first and later bone marrow for Kate.

By the time Anna is old enough to realize what is going on, Kate is in renal failure and really needs one of Anna's kidneys to survive.  Anna goes to an attorney (Alec Baldwin) and convinces him to help her sue her parents for the rights to her own body.  When Mom Sara finds out, she storms into the attorney's office.

While the legal world spins seemingly out of control, we get to see the touching young romance between Kate and Thomas, another teen with cancer she met during chemo.  They fall in love and make the movie all the more poignant.  Among the best parts of the movie.

The rest of the movie unfolds as the family becomes at odds about what's best for Kate and Anna.  Of course I won't give away the ending, but it is a tear jerker.

Director Nick Cassavetes, of “The Notebook” fame, uses flashbacks from each member of the family to tell the story.  I really loved the fact that he would give the audience the scene first, in the immediate perspective of the characters and then snap back to see it continue, without hearing it, from someone else's prospective through a window.  Cassavetes used this technique throughout the movie, and I appreciated that he allowed the audience to know for themselves what was happening without hitting us over the head with dialogue.

As for the acting, it's generally stellar.  Abigail Breslin proves yet again why she is one of Hollywood's formidable young actresses.  Sofia Vassilieva is fantastic as the romantic, dying Kate.  And Cameron Diaz proves she is an actress that can do more than laugh at Ben Stiller or run on the beach fighting bad guys with the Charlies Angeles gang.  This could be a turning point in her career as a dramatic actress.

Two other acting kudos must go to Baldwin as the attorney and the judge played by Joan Cusak.  Baldwin adds just the right amount of hokey and witty to his character and Cusak reminds us in one scene -- without uttering a word, just a welling up and a look out the window -- that judges have feelings and lives and unique perspectives. 

The plot does dig into an interesting subject that draws battle lines very clearly.  You have to pick sides and you don't want to be the one on the wrong side of the argument.  But the screenplay could have done so much more than it did.  There were some characters not fully developed - the older brother character drifts away.  And some scenes fell short in that they just didn't have the real dramatic meat that would have ensured Oscar would remember this movie come awards season.

As I mentioned, the film is based on Picoult's novel.  Fans of the book be warned:  you will more than likely be disappointed in the film's ending as it doesn't stay true to Picoult's story.  Gone is the jarring surprise twist at the end.  The film ending is a surprise of it's own, but not what the book-lovers would be expecting.

Nevertheless it is a poignant story that is a breath of fresh air amid summer blockbusters without plots!  I'll be sure to keep "My Sister's Keeper" near the top of my recommended movies list along with a recommendation to bring a box of tissues when you go to see it.