My Sister's Keeper
From the Director of "The Notebook"
What keeps a family together? Nick Cassavetes, the director of The Notebook and John Q, again demonstrates his sure hand with tales of deep human emotion in this inspiring film about a loving family challenged - and united - by a child's illness. Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin and others in an exceptional cast bring sensitivity to the story of 11-year-old Anna Fitzgerald, conceived to be a donor for her leukemia-stricken sister, and who finally demands the right to control her own body. This act of free will may tear the Fitzgeralds apart. Or it may be the first step to a triumphant realization of devotion, dignity and what it means to be a family.
Member Reviews
Emotional melodramatic tearjerker. The story get under your skin and makes you care. - moviemonger
At a time when Hollywood can't have enough of romantic comedies, extreme action and sci-fi adventure comes a family drama that's both powerful and rewarding. Part of My Sister's Keeper is about the ethics that often involve issues of life and death. But for much of it, it is simply a compelling story of the Fitzgerald family, of the things that hold them together and the issues that make them fall apart. The movie sucks you into their lives. It is a far more complicated affair but the beauty of My Sister's Keeper lies in the way director Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) handles his material fashioned from Jodi Picoult's novel. Wonderfully edited, the movie moves back and forth in time but never loses narrative focus. It helps that the movie has some wonderful soundtrack that articulate the mood of its strategic moments. The story is centred around two sisters -- Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) and Anna (Abigail Breslin). Their lives are not entirely their own. Kate has leukaemia and Anna was procreated by parents (Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric) to keep her elder sister alive. Kate loves her sister madly. But when it comes to donating her kidney, she refuses and goes to a lawyer for medical emancipation. The beauty of My Sister's Keeper is that despite all the talk of death, it never feels morbid, even heavy. "There's no shame in dying," says the judge, at one point. And we agree with her.Just read the book. - bluten
Listen, people. Do yourselves a favour and just read the book. The book is an absolute masterpiece - well-written, beautifully narrated, and filled with incredibly poignant moments and deep thoughts to ponder.
The movie was miscast, with the exception of Sofia Vassilieva, and the screenwriter did a great job of obliterating the original message of the book, not to mention the majority of its tender moments and portrayals of the family's ethical struggles, not to mention the side plots involving Campbell Alexander and Julia (a character omitted altogether from the film). Abigail Breslin is cute but not the old-soul actress needed to play Anna's many-layered character. And Alec Baldwin? The dude, bless his heart, oozes sleaze. Campbell Alexander, though annoying and aloof at times, is in no way the scumbag lawyer Baldwin tries to avoid but ends up portraying anyway.
Bottom line? I was really looking forward to seeing the movie's treatment of Jodi Picoult's novel, and ended up seriously disappointed. Some movies-from-books are decent or even excellent; this film was not one of them.A Truly Powerful Movie That Strikes A Chord - revsdd
What can really be criticized about this movie? Some are upset that it's ending is substantially different from that of the book on which it's based, but to judge this movie on its own merits, it's absolutely brilliant in every respect. The movie offers the viewer an ethical dilemma. Kate is dying of leukemia. When she was first diagnosed, her parents decided to have another child in the hopes that her placental blood would help cure the condition. Instead, it simply adds years on to her life, as she slowly declines and Anna, the younger daughter, becomes a more and more unwilling yet repeated donor of blood, bone marrow and - as the movie picks up the story - now a kidney. To prevent it, and knowing that it will mean Kate's death, Anna hires a lawyer to sue her parents for "medical emancipation" - the right to make her own medical decisions.
Although moving, this wasn't as much of a tear jerker as I thought it would be. Instead, it focus es on the ethical dilemma, primarily raising the question of whether one daughter's life should take precedence over the other's quality of life. Cameron Diaz was fantastic as the girls' mother - a role that, as the movie began, I didn't really think would fit her very well. Instead, she was totally convincing as the mother in denial. She can't accept that Kate is dying; she can't accept that Kate is tired of living; she can't accept that Anna is tired of being Kate's only lifeline; she can't accept that her own family is increasingly turning against her views on this. She has two daughters - one who needs to be told that it's OK to die, and one that needs to be told that it's OK to live, and she can't meet the needs of either. We see where the movie is heading almost from the beginning, which is one of the complaints of those who loved the book, which had a "twist" ending. The movie's ending, though, is powerfully realistic and strikes a chord, whereas "twist" endings often seem artificial and unreal.
Member Reviews
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Emotional melodramatic tearjerker. The story get under your skin and makes you care. - moviemonger
At a time when Hollywood can't have enough of romantic comedies, extreme action and sci-fi adventure comes a family drama that's both powerful and rewarding. Part of My Sister's Keeper is about the ethics that often involve issues of life and death. But for ...Just read the book. - bluten
Listen, people. Do yourselves a favour and just read the book. The book is an absolute masterpiece - well-written, beautifully narrated, and filled with incredibly poignant moments and deep thoughts to ponder.
The movie was miscast, with the exception ...A Truly Powerful Movie That Strikes A Chord - revsdd
What can really be criticized about this movie? Some are upset that it's ending is substantially different from that of the book on which it's based, but to judge this movie on its own merits, it's absolutely brilliant in every respect. The movie offers the ...