movie review of my sister's keeper

The spare child

Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva and Evan Ellingson in "My Sister's Keeper."

“My Sister’s Keeper” is an immediate audience-grabber, as we learn that an 11-year-old girl was genetically designed as a source of spare parts for her dying 16-year-old sister. Yes, it’s possible: in vitro fertilization assured a perfect match. And no, this isn’t science fiction like Kazuo Ishiguro ’s Never Let Me Go, with its cloned human replacements. It’s just a little girl subjected to major procedures almost from birth to help her sister live. So far they have succeeded, and Kate ( Sofia Vassilieva ) is alive long after her predicted death at 5. Her sister, Anna ( Abigail Breslin ), has donated blood, bone marrow and stem cells, and now is being told she must donate one of her kidneys. She’s had it. It dismays her to know she was conceived as an organ bank, and she wants her chance at a normal life without round trips to the operating room. She may be young but she’s bright and determined, and she decides to file a lawsuit against her parents for “medical emancipation.” She would be a model family if not for her sister’s death sentence. Her mom, Sara ( Cameron Diaz ), was a successful Los Angeles lawyer. Her dad, Brian ( Jason Patric ), is a fire chief. Her older brother, Jesse ( Evan Ellingson ), is a good student, but feels ignored. Anna and Kate love each other dearly. But always there is Sara’s relentless drive to keep her daughter alive. Like some successful attorneys, she also wants to win every case in her private life. Anna goes to an attorney who boasts a 90 percent success rate in his TV ads. This is the polished Campbell Alexander ( Alec Baldwin ), who drives a Bentley convertible and is known for bringing his dog into courtrooms. Sara offers her savings of $700. This is far under his fee, but he listens and accepts the case. Although “My Brother’s Keeper,” based on the best-seller by Jodi Picoult , is an effective tearjerker, if you think about it, it’s something else. The movie never says so, but it’s a practical parable about the debate between pro-choice and pro-life. If you’re pro-life, you would require Anna to donate her kidney, although there is a chance she could die, and her sister doesn’t have a good prognosis. If you’re pro-choice, you would support Anna’s lawsuit. The mother is appalled by the lawsuit. Keeping her daughter alive has been a triumph for her all of these years. The father is shocked, too, but calmer and more objective. He can see Anna’s point. She has her own life to live, and her own love to demand. The performances don’t go over the top, although they can see it from where they’re standing. Cameron Diaz has the greatest challenge because her determination is so fierce, but she makes her love evident — more for Kate, it must be said, than for Anna and Jesse. Jason Patric too rarely gets sympathetic roles, and embodies thoughtfulness and tenderness here. The young actors never step wrong. Nicely nuanced, too, is Alec Baldwin as the hot-shot attorney. He doesn’t have a posh office, and his photo is plastered on billboards, but he’s not a fly-by-night, and he has a heart. He also has a sense of humor; in several supporting roles recently, He has stepped in with lines enriched by unexpected flashes of wit. Also navigating around cliches here is Joan Cusack as the judge. She takes that impossible case and convinces us she handles it about as well as possible. The enigma is the underdeveloped brother, Jesse, who runs away for three days. We’re never told what that was all about; in the film, it serves merely to distract us when Taylor ( Thomas Dekker ), Kate’s fellow cancer patient, seems to disappear. The hospital romance between Taylor and Kate is one of the best elements of the movie, tender, tactful and very touching. The screenplay by Jeremy Leven and Nick Cassavetes (who also directed) is admirable in trusting us to figure things out. Because it’s obvious in one beautiful scene that Kate is wearing a wig, they don’t ask, “Will the audience understand that?” and add a jarring line. Routine courtroom theatrics are avoided. We learn of the verdict in the best way. We can see the wheels turning, but they turn well.  

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Sofia Vassilieva as Kate
• Abigail Breslin as Anna
• Alec Baldwin as Campbell
• Evan Ellingson as Jesse
• Jason Patric as Brian
• Cameron Diaz as Sara
• Joan Cusack as Judge
• Jeremy Leven

Based on the novel by

• Jodi Picoult

Directed by

• Nick Cassavetes

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Movie Review | 'My Sister’s Keeper'

My Kidney, My Life: Siblings in a Tough Spot

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By A.O. Scott

• June 25, 2009

The prospect of a child’s death is so awful that to broach it in a movie or a book requires a special measure of caution and sensitivity. Or so you might think. But at least since Victorian novelists from Charles Dickens to Louisa May Alcott dispatched under-age angels to heaven on cataracts of tears, dead or dying kids have provided ready catharsis and money in the bank. In modern day commercial fiction, and in Hollywood movies, childhood mortality is handled with sometimes cynical care. It can authorize righteous, vengeful violence or else reawaken the dormant possibilities of melodrama. Nothing else quite guarantees the same queasy intensity of feeling.

“My Sister’s Keeper,” based on a best-selling novel by Jodi Picoult, is an unapologetic — shameless? ruthless? — weepie, exploiting the grave illness of a lovely, lively, blameless girl from start to finish. But it has ambitions beyond mere ghoulish mawkishness. The director, Nick Cassavetes, has in the past, in movies like “The Notebook” and “John Q,” attempted a kind of honest manipulation, wringing outsize waves of emotion out of more or less ordinary situations, and trying to hold on to some notion of realism in the process.

In this film, he assembles an able cast into a family defined and distorted by the leukemia of their older daughter and middle child, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva). Kate’s disease was diagnosed when she was a toddler, and to save her life her parents, Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric), conceived another daughter, Anna (Abigail Breslin), who was genetically engineered to be a perfect donor of blood, marrow and whatever else Kate might need. Most of this is told through flashbacks, as each member of the family — there is also an older brother, Jesse (Evan Ellingson) — takes a turn providing voice-over narration and giving his or her own perspective on the story so far.

In the present, Anna has engaged a lawyer — a marvelously florid Alec Baldwin — to represent her in a suit against her parents. She wants to be medically emancipated, and not compelled to give up the kidney her sister now desperately needs. Her action sends a shock wave through the family, enraging her mother and throwing what had seemed to be agreed-upon principles into doubt. And yet, because of their long habits of comfort and care, the five Fitzgeralds seem to hang together in spite of Anna’s apparent betrayal.

Her suit raises some interesting ethical and legal issues, which are passed over rather lightly as the case comes before a judge (Joan Cusack) who has recently lost her own daughter. Do Anna’s rights to govern her own body trump her obligations to the sister she claims to love? Is she prepared to let Kate die?

But ethics are secondary to psychology, which is explored with varying degrees of superficiality and plausibility. Ms. Diaz is entirely believable as an ambitious, tough-minded woman whose ferocious protectiveness makes her at once heroic and a little monstrous, and Ms. Breslin and Ms. Vassilieva both nimbly navigate tricky roles, finding a vein of humor that undercuts some of the maudlin moments and adds to the emotional impact of the story.

Which is a bit too firmly wired into the premise. Mr. Cassavetes, who wrote the script with Jeremy Leven, has changed some details of Ms. Picoult’s novel, in particular by taking out a grotesquely shocking plot twist and replacing it with one that is mildly surprising, even as it reveals some of the film’s themes to be red herrings.

Other themes are less clearly considered than they might have been. At times, “My Sister’s Keeper” manages to be quietly insightful. A touching subplot, traced in a long, patient flashback, about a romance between Kate and a young fellow cancer patient (Thomas Dekker) is one of the few extended passages in the film that have some of the fine grain of lived experience. In general, though, Mr. Cassavetes writes in the shorthand of sentimentality rather than the prose of real feeling, relying on montage sequences, blackout cuts, the mellow golden hues of Caleb Deschanel’s cinematography and a heart-tweaking musical soundtrack as a substitute for hard dramatic work.

The tears arrive on cue, and to the extent that Ms. Vassilieva has embodied an authentic adolescent rather than a symbol of suffering, they are earned. But the film cannot quite decide what to make of the Fitzgerald family tragedy. It tries, to some extent, to resist the temptation to spiritualize Kate by finding meaning or comfort in her terrible situation even as it succumbs, in the end, to creepy and unconvincing redemptive impulses. “My Sister’s Keeper” takes on a very tough subject — and has, in Anna and Kate, two pretty tough characters played by strong young actresses — but ultimately it is too soft, too easy, and it dissolves like a tear-soaked tissue.

“My Sister’s Keeper” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has some under-age misbehavior, occasional strong language and some upsetting hospital scenes.

MY SISTER’S KEEPER

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Nick Cassavetes; written by Jeremy Leven and Mr. Cassavetes, based on the novel by Jodi Picoult; director of photography, Caleb Deschanel; edited by Alan Heim and Jim Flynn; music by Aaron Zigman; production designer, Jon Hutman; produced by Mark Johnson, Chuck Pacheco and Scott L. Goldman; released by Warner Brothers Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes.

WITH: Cameron Diaz (Sara Fitzgerald), Abigail Breslin (Anna Fitzgerald), Alec Baldwin (Campbell Alexander), Jason Patric (Brian Fitzgerald), Sofia Vassilieva (Kate Fitzgerald), Heather Wahlquist (Aunt Kelly), Joan Cusack (Judge De Salvo) and Thomas Dekker (Taylor Ambrose).

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My sister’s keeper — film review.

If you're going to make a weepy, there's no reason you can't make it with intelligence and insight as the makers of "My Sister's Keeper" have done.

By Kirk Honeycutt , The Associated Press June 21, 2009 5:00pm

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If you’re going to make a weepy, there’s no reason you can’t make it with intelligence and insight as the makers of “My Sister’s Keeper” have done. The audience manipulation — if one wants to call it that — comes from your understanding of these people and how this particular family operates in an atmosphere of love and mutual concern. The tragedy that forces its way into their midst is fought with tenacity, and the conflicts within the family are portrayed in such a manner that no one is a bad guy.

A film about a child with leukemia understandably has a small theatrical audience. Indeed, Jodi Picoult’s novel, on which Jeremy Leven and director Nick Cassavetes’ screenplay is based, might seem more at home on television, where illness, doctors and hospitals somehow feel less alarming. But “My Sister’s Keeper” does benefit from a sagacious big-screen treatment: It allows for nuances and takes time to focus this story of an illness on all the people it affects.

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The movie begins with a bit of misdirection when 11-year-old Anna (Abigail Breslin) sues her parents. It looks like you’re headed into a fascinating legal drama dealing with a thorny ethical issue.

Anna has always known she is a “donor child.” When her parents, Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric), discover their first daughter, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), has leukemia, they choose to conceive another child through genetic engineering who would be a perfect genetic match with Kate. Thus, Anna can donate blood or whatever else is necessary to keep her elder sister alive.

The two girls love each other dearly, so Anna never complains. Then, 11 years into this routine, Kate’s kidneys are failing and she’ll need one of Anna’s. Anna finally says no. She hires a big-shot lawyer (Alec Baldwin), whose face adorns billboards and buses all over Los Angeles, and goes to court seeking her “medical emancipation.” But her mom, who gave up a law practice to care for her ailing daughter, will make a ferocious opponent.

The movie isn’t about a court battle. The film moves back and forth in time to show how decisions were made and how this illness impacts everyone, including older brother Jesse (Evan Ellingson), who at times feels overlooked because of his sisters’ relay team in body parts. The movie reflects back on the joys and sorrows of a family and how love can be just as strong whether the answer is yes … or no.

The film takes time giving you the background on everyone, and that includes the judge (Joan Cusack) who will decide the issue and a fellow cancer patient (Thomas Dekker) who becomes Kate’s love interest.

OK, maybe everything is a little too neat, too perfect. If you’re going to be in a hospital, you would want David Thornton’s Dr. Chance for your doctor. He’s compassionate, honest, smart and — this element veering into science fiction — always available for consultation.

You would want your mom to be running over everyone else’s feelings in fighting for your life. You’d want a dad who continues to do his job — as a fireman, no less! — even though the illness marginalizes him within his own family. You’d want a brother and sister this loving, but would that ever happen?

The ugliness of the illness also is not depicted in detail. Even the vomiting is mostly offscreen. And the ending is dragged out unnecessarily. It is the one occasion where you might legitimately complain about manipulation.

Nevertheless, the actors work with a beguiling earnestness. Diaz goes without any discernible makeup and even shaves her head at one point (so her daughter won’t feel “ugly” following chemotherapy.) All the work pays off: This family feels like a family and not an ensemble thrown together in the casting process. When they gather around Kate’s hospital bed, the whole things seems very real. Thus, the tears.

Opens: Friday, June 26 (Warner Bros.)

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My sister's keeper.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 20 Reviews
• Kids Say 76 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Sad drama has heavy themes about illness, family.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this tearjerking drama explores some heavy themes that younger audiences may find difficult to process without guidance. A teenager is terminally ill, and her march to the end is painful: She vomits after chemo, her hair and eyebrows fall out, and more. The effects of her illness on her…

Why Age 15+?

"Goddammit," "s--t," "bitch," "hell," &q

Products shown/mentioned include 7-Up, Dr. Pepper, and Chevrolet.

A teen is briefly shown tipsy and holding a bottle, seemingly having gotten drun

A teenage girl falls in love with a boy and nearly consummates their relationshi

A mother screams in anger and frustration at her husband and tries to block the

Any Positive Content?

A child sues her parents for medical emancipation while her terminally ill siste

Family members stick together through thick and thin and are able to mine a deep

"Goddammit," "s--t," "bitch," "hell," "damn," "oh my God," and one "f--k."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

A teen is briefly shown tipsy and holding a bottle, seemingly having gotten drunk because she's angry at her condition. Social drinking by adults.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A teenage girl falls in love with a boy and nearly consummates their relationship (they're shown under covers holding each other, but later on, she intimates that she didn't go all the way). They also kiss and make out. Parents trade mild sexual innuendoes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

A mother screams in anger and frustration at her husband and tries to block the van he’s driving. A mom slaps a child.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

A child sues her parents for medical emancipation while her terminally ill sister waits for her to donate a kidney. It sounds grim, but there’s actually a lot of love here -- the family is supportive of one another, though they're also suffering from the worries and fears attendant to the situation.

Positive Role Models

Family members stick together through thick and thin and are able to mine a deep wellspring of love and understanding.

Parents need to know that this tearjerking drama explores some heavy themes that younger audiences may find difficult to process without guidance. A teenager is terminally ill, and her march to the end is painful: She vomits after chemo, her hair and eyebrows fall out, and more. The effects of her illness on her family are are similarly heartbreaking to watch. The film also touches on teenage sexuality and drinking and has some fairly infrequent swearing, including "f--k" and "s--t." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (20)
• Kids say (76)

Based on 20 parent reviews

We make choices in life every day, and you should make a choice and see this movie

What's the story.

Anna Fitzgerald ( Abigail Breslin ) was a wanted baby -- wanted more than anything in the world, because she was meant to save the life of her sister, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who's been battling leukemia since she was 2. The girls' mother, Sara ( Cameron Diaz ), vows to fend off death at all costs, even if it means using Anna as Kate's lifeline; their father, Brian ( Jason Patric ), supports her but has to tamp down some doubts. And their son, Jesse (Evan Ellingson), struggles to be relevant in a household where cancer -- and any potential cure -- reigns above all else. Then, one day, Anna declares she's had enough and, with the help of lawyer Campbell Alexander ( Alec Baldwin ), fights to be medically emancipated -- a move that could eliminate Kate's last hope of survival.

Is It Any Good?

Based on Jodi Picoult's same-named novel, MY SISTER'S KEEPER is a bona fide tearjerker. Given the subject matter, how could it not be? Director Nick Cassavetes has coaxed amazing performances from his first-rate cast, including Diaz, who surprises with the strength of her rage and melancholy as a mother determined not to see her child die. And the film does well what many other dramas about illness don't: examine the toll that a prolonged sickness takes on everyone, not just the patient. The sibling relationships are especially nuanced; power imbalances are believably rendered right alongside deep familial love.

What keeps the film from achieving greatness is largely due to its structure. Characters tell their stories one at a time; it moves the plot along, but sometimes a little coercively. (There's a courtroom case embedded in the plotline, so the voiceovers do seem to make sense here. Nevertheless, they drain some of the power.) The movie tells you how to feel instead of taking you there.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how a serious illness can change a family's dynamics. Does the movie accurately portray a family in distress? Does it find any bright side in a very sad story? How do movies generally depict terminal illnesses? Is this one any different?

Families can also discuss the consequences of teenage drinking , which the movie touches on briefly.

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 26, 2009
• On DVD or streaming : November 17, 2009
• Cast : Abigail Breslin , Cameron Diaz , Jason Patric
• Director : Nick Cassavetes
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
• Studio : New Line
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 109 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : mature thematic content, some disturbing images, sensuality, language and brief teen drinking
• Last updated : June 24, 2024

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Movie Review: My Sister’s Keeper (2009)

• General Disdain
• Movie Reviews
• 2 responses
• --> June 30, 2009

A new spin on the disease of the week Lifetime movie has been scripted by Jeremy Leven and Nick Cassavetes (based on the best-selling novel by Jodi Picoult) in My Sister’s Keeper . Instead of just tossing about how a family copes with a sick or dying loved one, this adds in a twist of also having a genetically engineered child whose sole purpose is to donate organs to help the ailing sibling.

More importantly, the film tackles how the family copes when said donator sibling decides she no longer wants to be harvested for body parts. That’s the situation Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) finds herself in — for 11 years she’s been prodded and poked, all for the grand purpose of keeping her cancer-stricken older sister Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) alive. But when she’s asked to donate a kidney, she’s had enough. She instead seeks counsel from lawyer Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin) for what amounts to a medical emancipation. Mother, Sara (Cameron Diaz), isn’t exactly pleased with Anna’s decision and she lets her know in no uncertain terms.

Of course, there are tears to be shed by those with (and possibly without) soppy hearts but director Nick Cassavetes tries to keep the focus of My Sister’s Keeper on the characters and their struggle to accept Kate’s dire situation and Anna’s difficult decisions rather than look for easy ways to tug on the viewers emotional strings. On this front, he does an admirable job. He pans from past to present — showing the better and the worse times — while giving equal time to all involved. This method of storytelling breaks up the linear and quite possibly what would have been a “ho-hum, seen it before” trajectory to the movie and allows all actors ample footing to bring forth their best stuff.

And they do.

Jason Patric, regains some footing from past acting regressions, with a strong performance as the father, Brian. Seeing both sides of the argument, he exhibits a quiet authority — seeking a middle ground between both mom and daughter. Sofia Vassilieva, in what basically amounts to her first major film, absolutely embodies the role of a young girl who has accepted the sad and cruel hand dealt to her. Abigail Breslin continues her meteoric rise as one of the more talented young actresses in the industry today (even though I thought she misstepped with Nim’s Island ) with a demanding performance. The surprise of the bunch is Cameron Diaz. Not exactly known for taking on the tough roles, she shows in My Sister’s Keeper that she’s got some range to her. Allowing some real emotion out, Diaz captures completely Sara, a woman so consumed by her desire to keep her daughter alive that she blinded to the irreparable damage she’s doing to her family.

Melodramatic movies that deal with mortality (or is i morbidity?) are generally not my cup of tea, but it’s hard not to applaud when they’re done this well. Clap, clap. My Sister’s Keeper is one I won’t mind watching again with the wife.

I'm an old, miserable fart set in his ways. Some of the things that bring a smile to my face are (in no particular order): Teenage back acne, the rain on my face, long walks on the beach and redneck women named Francis. Oh yeah, I like to watch and criticize movies.

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'Movie Review: My Sister’s Keeper (2009)' have 2 comments

July 9, 2009 @ 11:33 am Glen

It’s a very sad movie. The movie will surely touched the hearts’ of all movie growers. Absolutely, worth watching for…

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August 10, 2009 @ 8:07 pm Kelsey

Yeah it’s a bit sad. But they completely ruined the movie. They should have never even have attempted to turn the novel into a movie; there’s too much content in the novel. which, of course, the majority was left out in the movie. and they changed the ending! in the book, Kate doesn’t die – Anna does. so in the movie, there’s not twist. it’s just a shitty, sometimes depressing, movie about a girl with cancer who dies.

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• DVD & Streaming

My Sister’s Keeper

Content caution.

In Theaters

• June 26, 2009
• Cameron Diaz as Sara Fitzgerald; Abigail Breslin as Anna; Sofia Vassilieva as Kate; Jason Patric as Brian; Evan Ellingson as Jesse; Heather Wahlquist as Aunt Kelly; Alec Baldwin as Campbell Alexander; Joan Cusack as Joan De Salvo

Home Release Date

• November 17, 2009
• Nick Cassavetes

Distributor

• New Line Cinema

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

Sara Fitzgerald was once a successful attorney.

That was before her daughter’s cancer.

For fourteen years, Sara’s life has revolved around meeting daughter Kate’s every need in her battle against a rare form of leukemia. Now Sara juggles doctor’s appointments, chemotherapy and surgeries with the decisiveness of a drill sergeant. She also keeps the Fitzgerald household upbeat and on task whenever a relapse threatens to destroy their vigilantly constructed world.

Taking care of a gravely ill child is a full-time occupation, says her husband, Brian. And in the case of the Fitzgerald family, it has also prompted them to pursue a decidedly unorthodox treatment protocol: Having a designer baby.

Since no relative was an acceptable bone marrow donor for Kate, Sara and Brian took the drastic measure of genetically engineering the perfect donor. The result? Anna.

Anna says she was made in a petri dish to be spare parts for her sister. And judging from Sara’s treatment of her, at times it seems as if that callous assessment is exactly right. When Kate’s kidneys shut down, Anna is the only one who can save her. And Mom automatically assumes Anna will cheerfully yield an organ to save her big sis one more time.

But Anna has a different idea: filing a “medical emancipation” lawsuit against her parents so that she has the final say over what does and does not happen to her body.

And she does not want to give Kate her kidney.

Positive Elements

Much of the film pivots on the knife-edge fulcrum of an exceedingly thorny ethical question: whether Sara has the right to compel Anna to donate a kidney to save Kate. Both characters express some sound reasoning for their respective points of view. For Sara, nothing matters more than keeping Kate alive. For Anna, however, the reality is that Kate’s needs will never cease. And no matter what Anna provides for her sick sister, Kate is likely to die anyway.

Ultimately, though, the film isn’t really about Anna’s ethics or her mother’s. Instead, Anna’s refusal to surrender a kidney symbolizes the process of relinquishment. Anna understands before her mother does that Kate is going to die. For Sara, however, not pursuing every possible avenue for Kate’s healing is tantamount to giving up. Even as Mom defiantly refuses to accept her daughter’s impending death, Anna and the rest of the family have begun to come to terms with the idea of life without their beloved Kate.

Though she suffers from periodic depression because of her trials, Kate is generally upbeat. She faces cancer with courage, working through her grief more effectively than her mom, who is stubbornly stuck in denial. Kate also recognizes how great the emotional expense of her illness has been for her family. She laments the fact that she has inadvertently consumed most of her parents’ attention and caused them to be so distracted that Anna and older brother Jesse have fallen through the cracks in significant ways.

Despite these enormous tensions, though, the Fitzgeralds focus on keeping family life alive. They eat dinner together and joke around the table. They enjoy afternoons playing in their back yard. And, as a family, they celebrate Kate’s life. Sara’s sister, Aunt Kelly, lives with the Fitzgeralds as well and is another important link in Kate’s caregiving chain.

Kate’s ordeal strains her parents’ marriage to the brink of divorce, but Sara and Brian work to overcome their differences and keep the clan together. When Kate goes through chemotherapy, Sara makes a bold statement of solidarity by shaving her head to resemble her daughter’s baldness. Long-suffering Brian continually forgives his wife’s emotional outbursts as she struggles to help their daughter. And despite her lawsuit, Anna would do virtually anything (else) for her sister.

Taylor, a young leukemia patient whom Kate meets in the hospital, becomes her boyfriend. He lovingly supports her as she goes through chemotherapy (holding a plastic tub for her as she vomits, for example). Sara says his presence is probably better than any medicine. Together, Kate and Taylor help each other look death in the eye with humor and grace.

Two other characters in the legal part of the drama, a lawyer named Campbell Alexander and the judge who hears the case, Joan De Salvo, exhibit compassion for the Fitzgerald family. Likewise, Kate’s doctor is a kind, gracious and sensitive man.

[ Spoiler Warning ] Eventually, we learn that Anna’s lawsuit wasn’t really her idea. Instead, Kate put her up to it in an effort to force their mother to deal with reality. Just before her passing, Kate gives her mother a beautiful book she’s worked on that artfully chronicles every chapter of her life.

Spiritual Elements

When talking about how people come to be, Anna says there are “souls flying around looking for bodies” to inhabit on earth. As Kate approaches death, she says she’s not sure where she’ll go, but she thinks it will all be OK. Kate repeatedly compares her idea of the afterlife to the wide-open skies of Montana and suggests that she’ll be reunited one day with those she loves. Accordingly, Anna calls Kate “a little piece of blue sky” after her passing.

Kate creates a piece of art that depicts her mother as an ever-vigilant guardian angel. Family members describe Kate as a miracle. Well-meaning distant relatives suggest that positive thinking could lead to a miraculous recovery for Kate, though the film depicts their faith in that unrealistic outcome as naive.

“Amazing Grace” plays at Kate’s funeral. Song lyrics mention heaven. Campbell Alexander is said to have sued God and won. A joke involves zodiac signs.

Sexual & Romantic Content

In a move that deviates disappointingly from Jodi Piccoult’s novel, the film sexualizes Kate and Taylor’s relationship. They kiss passionately, exchange sex-oriented jokes and eventually lie down together, apparently naked, on a hospital bed. In that scene, Kate’s bare back is visible as she embraces Taylor. We don’t see the teens have sex, but Kate—perhaps to irritate her mother—announces later, “We did it!” Sara explodes, and Kate subsequently edits her confession, saying that they didn’t do “it,” but that they “did some stuff.”

Brian is shown shirtless in bed talking with Sara, who wears a tank top and modest pajamas. They kiss several times. While Jesse waits for a bus, his eyes follow buxom, scantily clad prostitutes on Sunset Strip. Aunt Kelly has a penchant for tight, cleavage-baring shirts and revealing short shorts. Kate wears one outfit that shows a lot of midriff.

Violent Content

Kate forcefully vomits blood. Her nose also bleeds profusely in several scenes. As death nears, bruises cover her body and face. Doctors use an intimidating needle to perform a bone marrow aspiration on Anna, who has to be restrained by several nurses before the procedure. When Anna refuses to donate a kidney, Sara slaps her face. Sara also hits Brian in an attempt to stop him from taking Kate to the beach. A man suffers an epileptic seizure.

Crude or Profane Language

One f-word, about five s-words. We also hear 10 or so misuses of God’s name, including two pairings with “d‑‑n.” Jesus’ name is abused three times. “H‑‑‑,” “d‑‑n” and “b‑‑ch” are each uttered two or three times.

Drug & Alcohol Content

Kate holds her own macabre “going away” party in her bedroom, drinking alcohol, gobbling a bunch of prescription meds and smashing furniture. Sara and Brian drink wine and beer. Taylor jokes about how he’s in the hospital for the free cocktails. We hear that the judge’s 12-year-old daughter was killed by a drunk driver.

Other Noteworthy Elements

Anna claims most babies are the product of drunkenness and no birth control. She says that only people who cannot conceive children easily actually plan for them.

Before Anna’s conception, a doctor suggests to Brian and Sara—off the record—that they might consider having a genetically engineered child for the purpose of harvesting organs and blood. The same doctor later lies about Kate’s temporary hospital discharge in order to avoid entanglements with the insurance company.

A grouchy nurse demands that Kate produce a urine sample. As a joke, Kate pours apple juice into the container, pretends it’s urine and drinks it when the nurse returns, laughing and then spitting it at the woman.

Often unsupervised, Jesse stands on the ledge of a tall building and wanders alone through potentially dangerous neighborhoods at night. No one notices when he is late for curfew after missing his bus.

In a time in which many people go the movies primarily to escape their own lives, this is a film that offers no such solace. What it does offer is a profound portrayal of life as it often is in the real world: brutal and arbitrary. Along the way, however, a young girl’s harsh fate is powerfully, paradoxically contrasted with the fierce, unfailing love of her mother and her family.

There is a quiet strength in a film like this one, a film that unflinchingly focuses on a tragedy without succumbing to the feel-good Hollywood formula that demands a happy, sappy ending. And there is a certain wonder in characters coming to peace with horrible things they don’t want and cannot understand. Kate does this before she dies, and her family gradually does the same after her death.

Though the film’s spiritual themes are merely peripheral—and God’s salvation message is never presented as a means to understanding or coming to terms with death—they nonetheless prompted me to ponder the fact that God owes us no answers for the incomprehensible and painful events He sometimes allows in our lives. There is mystery in His decisions, mystery we must accept. Some of us live and some of us die, as Anna says, and we may never have any idea why.

Acceptance is one response to such imponderables, a destination Kate reaches before her passing. Denial, the road Sara walks, is another. When we, like Sara, desperately cling to the way we think life ought to be, we can become so myopically focused on its disappointments that we miss the bigger picture. Indeed, up until the very end, Sara is so intent upon saving Kate that she’s rarely (if ever) actually present in the moment with her daughter. The possibility of joy and grace amid the pain gets squelched by Sara’s ironclad determination to maintain control—not to mention her desperate decision to create and manipulate life for her own purposes.

Despite those very real flaws, however, Sara is a deeply compelling character in her own right, a mother whose love for her dying daughter is indomitable. And who are we to say we wouldn’t react similarly in her shoes? Sometimes, though, a child does die. The world is at times indescribably painful. And in a culture obsessed with knowledge and control, the inevitability of loss and death is a hard thing to come to grips with.

Movies like My Sister’s Keeper model what it might look like to grapple with such heartrending losses with dignity and grace. Even when the answers remain elusive, there comes a point when, perhaps after fighting fiercely, we, like Sara, finally relax our grip and open our hearts to a path different than the one we’d once mapped out.

Still, once you put all the physical, psychological and spiritual pieces into place, you should be left pondering the validity of whether anyone should be encouraged to seek out and grasp peace about dying—without any concern for what’s on the other side.

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Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Jason Patric, Sofia Vassielieva, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack Nick Cassavetes Nick Cassavetes, Jeremy Leven (based upon novel by Jodi Piccoult) Rated PG-13 109 Mins. New Line

Brian (Jason Patric) and Sara (Cameron Diaz) would seem to have the ideal life.

Brian is a firefighter, Sara a lawyer. They have a young daughter, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who is beautiful and vibrant.

Ah, the perfect life.

Alas, perfection is not meant to be and Kate is diagnosed with a form of leukemia. Encouraged to explore experimental alternatives by their physician, Brian and Sara have a child in vitro, Anna (Abigail Breslin), who grows up knowing she is to be a donor child genetically engineered to be a perfect match for all of Kate's medical needs.

Blood? They are a perfect match.

Stem cells? Perfect.

Bone Marrow? Again, a perfect match.

"Hold on," cries Anna. "Enough is enough."

Based upon a 2004 novel by Jodi Picoult, "My Sister's Keeper" is the saga of the Fitzgerald family and their fight to keep alive a teenage daughter against seemingly insurmountable odds.

It works...for awhile, anyway. Kate has lived far longer than anyone expected, but in her late teens her body begins to shut down and she requires a kidney to have any hope of survival. Again, the family calls Anna into action to be the donor of her sister's kidney.

Anna refuses. She hires a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to help her obtain medical emancipation, an act that seems initially a tad callous despite the horrific medical procedures she has endured on behalf of her sister throughout her eleven years.

Director Nick Cassavetes has directed both a weepy family drama ("The Notebook") and a film that delves into medical ethics ("John Q"). With "My Sister's Keeper," Cassavetes attempts with moderate success to take both approaches into dealing with the Fitzgerald family dilemma.

Is "My Sister's Keeper" an exploration of medical ethics and moral dilemmas?

Yes, indeed. Initially, anyway.

Is "My Sister's Keeper" a powerful family drama exploring the inner workings of a traumatized family?

At times, yes.

Is "My Sister's Keeper" a legal drama journeying through the court system and often harrowing decisions left in the hands of individuals themselves who are, at times, as wounded as those they serve?

Truthfully, Cassavetes can't seem to decide what he really wants "My Sister's Keeper" to be and it's that lack of consistency that most plagues the often powerful, tender, moving and evocative film.

"My Sister's Keeper" works far more than it should, mostly owing to the strength of its ensemble cast and Cassavetes' ability to construct scenes that tug at the heartstrings relentlessly.

Early on, it appears that "My Sister's Keeper" going to fall closer to "John Q" on the cinematic spectrum. In case you're wondering, that's not a compliment. My companion for the evening, in fact, fell asleep during the film's first third, however, by film's end this same companion could be seen dabbing at his eyes with tears flowing.

These early scenes seem to have as their primary goal to establish the strained family dynamic, seen mostly through the eyes of a defiant 11-year-old and a shrill, irritating mother with a seemingly abusive inability to let go. When the Leukemia initially goes into remission, the family dynamics calm and the true heart of the film begins to reveal itself.

The mother, despite her obviously complicated grief, truly loves her daughter and has given up virtually every aspect of self-identity to advocate for her.

Anna, despite her seemingly self-centered gesture, loves her ill sister madly and, over the course of the film, we learn just how significant a role she has played in Kate's daily life.

Kate, on the other hand, is just plain tired. She struggles to balance the unreasonable demands of her affluent father's side of the family with the differently unreasonable demands of her mother's relatives. Caught in the middle, Kate seems to crave the only thing she'll likely never have...a sense of normalcy.

It is during Kate's period of remission that "My Sister's Keeper" begins to really take flight as we see a budding romance between Kate and another Cancer-stricken teenager, Taylor (Thomas Dekker). While these scenes initially feel a bit awkward as the two physically appear drastically different in age, it is these scenes that most ground "My Sister's Keeper" into a heartfelt, human drama delving into the emotional, legal, moral and everyday intimacies of living with a terminal illness.

Of course, it is to be expected that the remission will not last and it goes without saying that a romance between two terminally ill young adults will be ill-fated.

As this relationship weaves itself through these young lives, we begin to see each member of the Fitzgerald family differently and realize that, despite their differences, they are a family.

While Sara is initially written almost obnoxiously over the top, this is Cameron Diaz's finest performance in years and a reminder of just how wonderful she can be in the right film.

Likewise, Abigail Breslin again shines in the type of role that used to be automatically given to Dakota Fanning. Breslin's Anna is both fiercely determined and powerfully loyal even as her story continues to unfold.

The true revelation of "My Sister's Keeper," however, is Sofia Vassilieva, most known to American audiences for her work on television's "Medium." In a role reportedly turned down by Dakota Fanning, who didn't want to shave her head, Vassilieva is utterly heartbreaking and astounding and even celebratory. While the others around her grapple with death, Vassilieva's Kate is quietly celebrating life in all its simple glories. While Cassavetes often takes these celebratory scenes over-the-top, Vassilieva is fantastic in them.

Jason Patric, as a loyal and always present father, provides a quiet contrast to Diaz's histrionics. Among the family members, only the brother, Jesse (Evan Ellingson), seems woefully underdeveloped with a series of side scenes that feel disjointed and without purpose.

As the lawyer with a not so stellar reputation, Alec Baldwin provides much of the film's comic relief, while Joan Cusack shines as the judge who seems to understand both sides of the dilemma.

Tech credits are generally solid, though Cassavetes massively over-utilizes musical montage scenes meant to provide unspoken plot exposition and evoke strong emotional responses. While Cassavetes used this approach in "The Notebook," he plugs in a montage virtually every few minutes throughout the film to the point that it begins to feel intrusive. Aaron Zigman's original score is a nice complement to the film's stark humanity, while Caleb Deschanel's lensing fits the mood nicely.

Fans of Picoult's novel are likely to be at least modestly disturbed by the liberties that Cassavetes takes with the material, but those going in fresh will likely find much to appreciate about "My Sister's Keeper." Flawed, yet undeniably moving and involving, "My Sister's Keeper" is a solid alternative for those wishing to avoid the "Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen" chaos this weekend. While it's unlikely to do even half of the "Transformers" box-office, "My Sister's Keeper" has potential as a sleeper with a longer shelf-life on home video.

© Written by Richard Propes The Independent Critic 

My Sister’s Keeper

Review by brian eggert july 3, 2009.

Do children have the right and know-how to determine their medical future? Shouldn’t youngsters be able to say no when their parents opt them into medical procedures they no longer want? How can children know what’s right for them, versus something they don’t want but need ? How far does parenting “for the good of the child” extend? My Sister’s Keeper presents a curious legal and moral dilemma but never provides answers to these questions. Correction: Answers are provided, but once the decisions are made, they no longer matter. Allow me to explain.

Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) has acute promyelocytic leukemia, which she’s had since she was 5, and she will inevitably die unless her sister, Anna (Abigail Breslin), donates a kidney to save her. In fact, Anna was genetically designed by way of in vitro fertilization to be her sister’s spare part depot—a plot conceived of her parents, Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric), and their doctor. But the 11-year-old Anna doesn’t want to be poked and prodded anymore. She doesn’t want to live the rest of her life at risk because she only has one kidney. Anna’s been hospitalized several times from extractions of blood and bone marrow, and now she wants medical emancipation.

Enter hotshot lawyer Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin), whose layered role eventually explains why he takes on Anna’s case for her mere $700 savings. They sue for medical privileges over Anna’s body, for her right to decline potential harm from the procedures that would save her sister. The case, from a legal standpoint alone, intrigues plenty, not to mention the drama that ensues. Their fiery mother, who’s done everything, including conceiving another donor child to save Kate, doesn’t understand Anna’s selfishness, and she’s angry about it. But isn’t it rather selfish to not think of Anna’s feelings about being chopped up against her will? And then there’s Kate and Anna’s troubled brother Jesse (Evan Ellingson), who’s having his own problems. Still, neither his parents nor the script bothers explaining his curious disappearances into the inner city, where he watches prostitutes stroll by. Perhaps he just likes the attention he’s not getting at home.

Of course, the story plays out in episodic form, taking the structure of the bestselling novel by Jodi Picoult that jumps around as the melodrama demands. A pleasant interlude in the middle tells us about how Kate meets Taylor (Thomas Dekker), a patient like her who becomes her boyfriend. The movie’s chapters center on specific characters, but it doesn’t have an ending or any sense of resolution for the questions asked. By the time a verdict is reached, Kate’s dwindling health is no longer the family’s concern, so the decision means nothing. There were hints of soapboxing, such as the nods to how stem cell research could probably fix all this, which unavoidably conflict with Kate’s spirituality. Yet, these ideas could have been fleshed out further as a needed social commentary.

The performances are impressive. Breslin continues to show how mature yet childlike she can be; hopefully, she grows into a full-fledged actress someday, rather than just awkward like so many child actors become. Baldwin starts hard-edged, but he shows his soft side eventually, reminding us how fine an actor he is. Diaz was perhaps miscast, as she always feels like she’s acting no matter the role; she’s certainly valuable in those maniacal overprotective mother scenes, but when she’s meant to be soft, her performance becomes artificial. The real surprise was Vassilieva, who could earn herself an Oscar nomination for her painfully authentic role as the dying cancer patient. Likewise, Joan Cusack, not playing a total weirdo for once, gives an impressive cameo-sized performance as the emotionally broken judge presiding over Anna’s case. Despite these welcomed flourishes, something about the movie just doesn’t sit well as time goes on.

Maybe it’s the downer ending, or the near-constant narration that explains what it all means and prevents us from finding our own connections, but My Sister’s Keeper comes very close to being a truly satisfying tearjerker and just barely misses. This is unexpected, coming from director Nick Cassavetes ( The Notebook ), who wrote the screenplay along with Jeremy Leven. Instead of genuine feeling throughout, what you get is a good cry from plenty of TV movie clichés. You see them coming long in advance, fully anticipate them, and when they arrive, your tear ducts burst and the waters flow. That we know we’re being manipulated but reach for the Kleenex anyway attests to the effectiveness of the otherwise overt sentimentality, but doesn’t leave us feeling good about it afterward.

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My Sister's Keeper Reviews

That we know we’re being manipulated but reach for the Kleenex anyway attests to the effectiveness of the otherwise overt sentimentality, but doesn’t leave us feeling good about it afterward.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 4, 2023

One of the great literary adaptation disappointments of the century so far.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 31, 2022

Just when it couldn't get any sadder, it does.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 29, 2020

Fans of Picoult's novel are likely to be at least modestly disturbed by the liberties that Cassavetes takes.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Sep 17, 2020

It is effective, but only in the most shallow, manipulative way, and results in a cowardly, movie-of-the-week exit that isn't worthy of these engaging sisters.

Full Review | Dec 14, 2018

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 18, 2012

Tearjerker that aims for rarefied feelings as well as knee-jerk, sentimental moments.

Full Review | Aug 15, 2011

My Sister's Keeper is a committee-approved nerve-snapper that, much like its main character, has been genetically engineered to MAKE! YOU! CRY!

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5 | Oct 27, 2010

Yes, unabashed weeper My Sister's Keeper has that Hollywood sheen -- but it's the unexpectedly piercing realness of this family's anguish that's going to get you. Just try to hold back the waterworks.

Full Review | Jul 6, 2010

Strong performances, and a subtle script make director Cassavetes film one of the better tearjerkers of the year...

Full Review | Dec 11, 2009

The film has its flaws and swims in meticulously crafted schmaltz... yet also has well-conceived tender moments hiding in the fringes.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Dec 6, 2009

My Sister's Keeper demands nothing less than a tidal wave of tears.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 28, 2009

The film has a profound and compelling premise. Regrettably, it seems intent on being about everything but that premise.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 16, 2009

I tried to keep an open mind, hoping something would win me over. It didn't happen.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Nov 14, 2009

[I]ntelligent, moving and even occasionally funny, although you might want to bring along a few tissues just in case.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 11, 2009

Cassavetes...shows great skill in weaving bright moments -- even an adolescent romance -- into the gloom. It's still bittersweet, but like mass-produced crème caramel, never too bitter.

Full Review | Jul 31, 2009

[Cassavetes] refuses to let the material speak for itself, putting a famous-for-making-women-cry song behind almost every scene, and lingering on every sentimental moment.

Bring the tissues. This film works.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 31, 2009

What starts as an exploration of the ethics of organ-donation and genetic selection, rapidly disintegrates into a sloppy, unstructured, tear-jerking mess.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 30, 2009

There's no question that this is a really intriguing drama and a drama that I think deserved better treatment than it gets here because I think Nick Cassevetes -- I don't think he's a very good director, really.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 29, 2009

My Sister's Keeper (United States, 2009)

Death is as natural a part of life as is birth; every existence ends in the former as it begins in the latter. Human beings, however, have a natural aversion to addressing death in an open and honest manner. It's as unsuitable for polite conversation as sex and drugs. Movies too often veer into unbearable melodrama when the subject matter encroaches upon the Grim Reaper's territory. Call it the Terms of Endearment syndrome - heap on the manipulation until the audience is drowning in tears. It is refreshing, therefore, to find a film that chronicles the process of accepting death without wallowing in sentimentality. With My Sister's Keeper , director Nick Cassavetes exhibits a degree of restraint that is laudable. The film retains an emotional impact while maintaining a low-key style. It pushes buttons but not to the point of overkill. It is, in short, a rich experience that leaves the viewer in a contemplative mood without feeling used by a director eager to boost Kleenex sales.

I have not read the best-selling novel by Jodi Picoult upon which the screenplay, co-credited to Cassavetes and Jeremy Leven, is based. Judging by the film's structure, which employs flashbacks, a wrap-around voiceover, and various internal monologues throughout, it must have been difficult to get "just right." Credit goes to the director and the writers, who have crafted a screen story that captures the essence of the characters and presents the themes and ideas in a clear, coherent fashion. The actors also deserve a lion's share of the kudos. There's not a weak performance to be found.

The film's "hook" is a stunning declaration by 11-year old Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin): she does not want to donate a kidney to her older sister, Kate (Sofia Vassileva), who is dying of lymphoma, and she's willing to go to court to validate that decision. Anna was conceived as a "donor baby" - genetically compatible in all ways with Kate so that she could donate blood, bone marrow, and organs to her sister to prolong her life. By age 11, Anna has been poked and prodded with needles and has had bone marrow extracted twice. The prospect of giving her kidney to Kate is terrifying, since the operation is not without danger and it could rob Anna of the capacity to live a "normal" life. So, standing up to her mother, Sara (Cameron Diaz), she decides she wants "medical emancipation," and approaches a lawyer, Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin), to take her case. She still wants to live with her family, and still loves her sister, but she wants control of her body. Her brother, Jesse (Evan Ellingson); father, Brian (Jason Patric); and Kate understand and support her, but Sara is angry and hurt.

As the story unfolds, we learn bits and pieces about the various characters and are provided with windows of insight into how Kate's illness has impacted them. (One curious omission, probably as a result of time constraints: Sara's faithful sister, Kelly (Heather Wahlquist), is never properly developed. We never understand what inspires such a selfless devotion to her niece.) Flashbacks tell the story of how Kate's lymphoma was diagnosed and what prompted Sara and Brian to bring Anna into the world; how hairline fissures within the family dynamic became more pronounced because of the potential tragedy in their midst; and how Kate found a way to steal some happiness with Taylor (Thomas Dekker), another cancer patient. The inevitable denouement of My Sister's Keeper is presented in a gentle, dignified manner so unlike the overwrought climax of Terms of Endearment .

The movie raises but does not dwell upon the thorny ethical issue of the rights accorded to a genetically engineered child. This is not, after all, science fiction. As the story progresses, the question of whether Anna is eligible for "medical emancipation" becomes increasingly less important. The focus is upon each character accepting the inevitable where Kate is concerned, with Sara, who has fought the longest and hardest of them all for her daughter, being the last holdout. Her blind devotion to a cause, and her losing sight of the person at the heart of that cause, makes her at times seem like a monster. Cassavetes, however, is mindful of not demonizing Sara, being careful to balance her seeming cruelty with scenes providing insight into her pain and compassion. Love often compels irrational and occasionally ungenerous behavior.

The performances are strong across-the-board. Cameron Diaz, best known for appearing in romantic comedies and lighthearted fare, shows dramatic chops in taking on a role that requires range and depth. Jason Patric's minimalist approach is perfect for Brian, who is caught in the middle of the tug-of-war between his wife and daughter. Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassileva display a natural bond one might expect from sisters, and there's no hint of artifice or overacting in either performance. Alec Baldwin tones down his tendency toward bombast and delivers a finely tuned portrayal of a lawyer who has a hidden reason to pursue the case with tenacity. Perhaps the most memorable sample of acting comes from Joan Cusack, who provides a heartbreaking interpretation of a bereaved judge. The pain in her eyes, which occasionally pool with tears, cannot fail to move. If there's an Oscar nomination lurking in this film, it should go to Cusack.

The strength of the acting and the modulation of the screenplay transforms what could have been a run-of-the-mill Lifetime disease-of-the-week movie into something more insightful and intelligent. Ultimately, it is sad, but there are moments of joy and enlightenment along the way. My Sister's Keeper does not cheat with a happy ending but, perhaps more importantly, neither does it cheat with something mawkish. By threading that needle, it finds the right mix between emotionality and acumen, a recipe followed by surprisingly too few dramas these days.

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My Sister’s Keeper Review

26 Jun 2009

109 minutes

My Sister’s Keeper

My Sister’s Keeper is a weepie-of-the-week TV movie with an upscale cast and low-grade ambitions that it somehow fails to fulfil. Abigail Breslin is the little miss sunshine who sues mommy Cameron Diaz and daddy Jason Patric so she won’t have to donate any more organs/bone marrow/bodily fluid to her leukaemic older sister. You might expect a rousing court battle, bitter sibling spats and thought-provoking debates… Instead, director Nick Cassavetes supplies an eternal bloody montage, intercut with Diaz acting mental and Breslin being smug and self-possessed. This clumsy, charmless movie doesn’t even work as emotional pornography.

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Review: my sister’s keeper.

It suffers from sheer sloppiness of script that results in scenes of comedic frivolity coming off as screechingly forced.

Athematic sequel to his 2002 hospital hostage drama, John Q , Nick Cassavetes’s My Sister’s Keeper centers on a different sort of hostage situation, one in which an 11-year-old girl is incessantly pressured by her parents to donate blood, bone marrow, and even a kidney to postpone the inevitable death of her saintly, leukemic older sister, for whom she’s a rare blood match. Correctly intuiting that she’s being illegally coerced, the violated and apparently unloved Anna (Abigail Breslin) opens the story by slapping some money down on the desk of ambulance chaser Campbell Alexander (a dapper Alec Baldwin), hiring him to emancipate her from the terrible decision-making of her emotionally traumatized mother, Sara (Cameron Diaz), whose refusal to accept the terminal condition of the rapidly expiring Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) extends even to barring Make a Wish representatives from entering Kate’s hospital room.

No villain, Diaz’s Sara is just a weepy, over-determined mess who ultimately steals some of the film’s sympathy from Anna, proving that Diaz is nothing if not inherently likable. However, Cassavetes also cheats a bit in Sara’s favor, carefully constricting the film’s focus so that the emotional center remains fixed on Kate’s hardship, not Anna’s, lest the viewer linger on thoughts of child abuse. The frightening escalation of Kate’s cancer is glimpsed in vivid flashbacks that show her vomiting blood, agonizing over hair loss from chemotherapy, and finding love with a dying boy in the cancer ward, while Anna’s own hospitalizations, for the painful marrow extractions and blood transfusions that keep Kate alive, are almost exclusively talked about, rather than shown. One harrowing exception is when she’s briefly seen being forcibly held to a hospital bed, a damning visual that’s hysterically overlaid with cheery music so as to dampen its persuasive power. It’s as if Anna has to convince even the filmmakers of her plight.

Apart from the tonal inconsistencies resulting from Cassavetes’s tinkering with the audience identification focus, My Sister’s Keeper also suffers from sheer sloppiness of script that results in scenes of comedic frivolity coming off as screechingly forced, and dramatic episodes so conceptually off-kilter that they succeed as unintentional comedy. A prime example of the latter would be a flashback that reveals Anna’s very birth to have been the result of an “off-the-record” suggestion of Kate’s quack oncologist, who looks like SCTV -era Eugene Levy and who actually convinces Sara and bored-looking husband Brian (Jason Patric) to have another child for the spare parts , which they do. Back in the present day, as they sit on either side of Anna at a dinner table, trying to cajole her into more “donations,” their persistence borders on ghoulishness.

A clichéd circus of a movie trial predictably ensues, with inexplicably fidgety judge Joan Cusack presiding over what’s essentially a group hissy fit so legally irrelevant it could have just as well been held at the family breakfast table. By that point, the viewer is almost hoping that, in light of everything that’s come before, the judge will place Anna in the custody of warm, compassionate Campbell Alexander, who gets a chance to shine in one unexpected moment. Incensed by the barking of his constant canine companion, the judge forces both lawyer and dog to leave the courtroom. Once outside, Alexander promptly topples to the ground and lapses into an epileptic seizure, inadvertently revealing his emotional reasons for initially taking on Anna’s case. Ever the great showman, Baldwin executes his frightening fit with aplomb, and it’s almost worth the ticket price.

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Ryan Stewart

Ryan Stewart's writing has appeared in MovieMaker , Premiere , and Cinematical .

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My Sister's Keeper

• Anna Fitzgerald looks to earn medical emancipation from her parents who until now have relied on their youngest child to help their leukemia-stricken daughter Kate remain alive.
• In Los Angeles, the eleven year old Anna Fitzgerald seeks the successful lawyer Campbell Alexander trying to hire him to earn medical emancipation from her mother Sara that wants Anna to donate her kidney to her sister. She tells the lawyer the story of her family after the discovery that her older sister Kate has had leukemia; how she was conceived by in vitro fertilization to become a donor; and the medical procedures she has been submitted since she was five years old to donate to her sister. Campbell accepts to work pro bono and the obsessed Sara decides to go to court to force Anna to help her sister. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Anna Fitzgerald was conceived via in vitro so that her parents could have a genetic match and donor for their older daughter, Kate who has leukemia. But after years being tested and prodded, Anna decides to take her parents to court herself so that she could be emancipated from them when it comes to anything medical. But her mother refuses to it so the whole thing goes to court. And it nearly tears the family apart. — [email protected]
• Using the latest medical technology, Anna Fitzgerald, was conceived in vitro and was genetically created to be a perfect match donor child for her sister Kate who has leukemia. Now at 11 years old, Anna seeks the help of Attorney Campbell Alexander to gain medical emancipation from her parents, more specifically her mother Sara. Anna brings to the attention of everyone around her that she matters too. She has helped keep her sister alive for 11 years, has gone through multiple medical procedures and surgeries, but she draws the line at donating her kidney. Sara, the girls mother, is beside herself with anger and only sees one side... how to keep Kate alive at all costs. After Anna files a lawsuit against her parents Sara decides to take this matter to court so Anna isn't emancipated and has to help Kate. Will Anna win the legal medical emancipation lawsuit and be free to decide what is done to her body? Or will the judge decide Anna is too young? Bigger question is... will this be decided in time to save Kate? — Carrie DeCosta
• Conceived by means of in vitro fertilization, Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) was brought into the world to be a genetic match for her older sister, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia. Because of her sister's dependency on her, Anna is unable to live the life she wants; in and out of the hospital constantly, she cannot take part in extracurricular activities such as cheerleading or soccer. When Kate turns 13 she goes into renal failure. Knowing that she will have to donate one of her kidneys to her sister, Anna sues her parents for medical emancipation and the rights to her own body. Attorney Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin) agrees to work for Anna pro bono. The film is interlaced with flashbacks that detail the strong relationship between Kate and Anna, as well as how Kate's illness has affected her siblings' lives. Before the result of the case is known, it is revealed that Kate had asked Anna to file for medical emancipation. Believing that she would not survive the surgery, Kate wants to die. Anna wins the case, and due to her sister's wishes does not donate her kidney. Kate later dies at the hospital. The family moves on with their lives, being changed by Kate's death, but every year on Kate's birthday they go to Montana, which was her favorite place in the world. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************* Conceived by means of in vitro fertilization, Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) was brought into the world to be a genetic match for her older sister, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia, in order to keep her alive. Her family members are introduced one by one and each tells about how Kate's illness has affected them personally and the family. When Kate turns 15, she goes into renal failure. Eleven-year-old Anna knows that she will be forced by her parents to donate one of her kidneys. She also realizes that she may not be able to live the life she will want to lead - she may be unable to cheer-lead, play soccer, or be a mother. Anna tells her parents that she does not want any of this, and proceeds to sue them for medical emancipation and the rights to her own body. Her overprotective mother, Sara (Cameron Diaz), who leads an obsessive campaign to keep Kate alive, is indignant at Anna's decision and even strikes her across the face when she receives the notice of intended prosecution. Attorney Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin) agrees to work for Anna as her guardian ad litem, suing for partial termination of parental rights. It is later learned he agreed to take the case not for the notoriety, but because he has epilepsy and understands her predicament of not having control over her own body. The film is interlaced with flashbacks that detail Kate and Anna's closeness, as well as how Kate's illness has affected her siblings' lives and their relationships. In a flashback, Kate also meets a fellow cancer patient, Taylor Ambrose (Thomas Dekker), whom she begins dating. After a date, they share their first kiss outside Kate's house, with Sara and Kate's father Brian (Jason Patric) watching from their bedroom window. After this, he becomes her boyfriend in and out of hospital and supports her as she undergoes treatment. He then asks her to the hospital's "prom" for teen patients; there, they slow-dance, then proceed to a vacant hospital room to make love. A few days later, Kate is crying because Taylor hasn't called her for several days. Her mother Sara is furious when Kate mentions they did "stuff" after the prom and storms out to ask the nurse where Taylor is, evidently believing that he had dated her daughter merely to sleep with her, and learns that he has died. Kate makes a request to go to the beach one last time, and Brian obtains permission from her doctor and removes her from the hospital to take her and the kids. Overprotective as ever, Sara is furious when Brian shows up at the house with Kate and demands that she be returned to the hospital. Brian angrily refuses and drives off, threatening Sara with a divorce if she does not join them. Sara later shows up at the beach, where they enjoy one final family outing. To Sara's dismay, the judge (Joan Cusack) refuses to grant summary dismissal, and the case goes to a hearing. During the hearing, Anna and Kate's older brother, Jesse reveal that Anna's actions are actually under Kate's instruction; Kate, not wanting to live any longer, and knowing Sara refuses to hear any option other than her desired one, had gently persuaded Anna to refuse to donate her kidney. Sara is indignant at this discovery, but is finally forced by both Jesse and Brian to realize that Kate had been trying to tell her this for some time. Before the case is decided, Kate dies while sleeping at the hospital with her mother by her side. After Kate's death, Campbell brings the court decision: Anna won the case. The family moves on with their lives, but every year on Kate's birthday they go to Montana, which was her "most favorite place in the world." At the end, Anna says that their relationship continues because she will see Kate again.

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