MY SISTER'S KEEPER - REVIEW
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My Sister's Keeper
Director:Nick Cassavetes
Cast:Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Sofia Vassilieva, Joan Cusack, Jason Patric
Rating: 2.5
From the director of The Notebook comes My Sisters Keeper. If you
have seen the former, a modern romantic epic, you would be well aware
of the territory Keeper is aiming at.
Adapted from a book by Jodi Picoult it centres around Kate a girl who
has all the fullness of life about her but is touched by death in the
form of cancer.
Her sister, played with great charm by Abigail Breslin, in her own
words is "no accident" and was on fact genetically engineered as a
"donor baby" specifically designed to provide, blood,bone marrow and
other essential ingredients for her ailing sister Kate(Sofia Vassilieva).
How can a parent do that you ask? To their mother (Cameron Diaz) it's
easy. It's necessary to keep Kate alive. This calls into question
the quality of life for Anna.
Anna is 11 when she musters up the emotional maturity to seek medical
emancipation from her parents and enlists the help of a lawyer (played by a softly spoken Alec Baldwin) to sue them for the rights to her own body.
Anna's mother, who is a lawyer herself, contests that Anna cannot be allowed to emancipate herself due to her age and the fact that she is not in fact emotionally mature enough to make such decisions.
All the while Kate is in hospital suffering from the loss of her boyfriend, a fellow cancer patient, and struggling with the tests, and traumas of remission and relapse.
This film is a rollercoaster of emotion, and my viewing cohort reached for the tissues on many an occasion, but there were holes in this story that even she pointed out to me.
Casting: Cameron Diaz was not suitably cast in the role of the mother, her efforts to be maternal towards her children fall short and although the writing gears you towards dislike for the mother, I think much of that had to do with Diaz's delivery. . Her and Breslin where the two key A-lister's tied to the movie, but their pairing was miss-matched and I didn't believe the family connection.
There was also the Aunt/Sister character who was ever present around but never really did anything apart from paint Kate's toenails. She didn't serve to add value to the story.
There was narration from Kate and Anna's brother during the story that said they rarely see either parent's side of the family except at holidays or "a crisis" which easily took care of the large gathering of relatives and us not having any personal connection with any of them, but I feel more could have been done with this.
The most solid performance comes from Joan Cusack who plays the judge presiding over the legal proceedings. She is affected by occurrences with her own daughter in dealing with the case.
Now, this reviewer is no stranger to sickness, or hospitals and I have been through the ringer in terms of illness myself and know how sickness and the shock of illness can affect and debilitate an otherwise solid family. To this end I had a heightened sense of criticism over this feature.
Seeing what Kate went though brought home my own experiences with the hospital ward and I would not wish that on any family. I am fortunate enough to not have a terminal illness but I wanted to relate to a character who did, and I couldn't.
This film is not for everybody, and it's not a family friendly film. Though it deals with an experience that is part of every day life, I think it could have been handled better and I am sure if this was more of a dramatic tail rather than a sympathetic one, perhaps in the hands of another director it would have had a grittier treatment and a less-forced sentimentality.
Rhythmatism
Zentertainment
Budget Centsability
I reviewed the book HERE if you'd like to take a look.
I'm not sure I will watch the film. The book was stunning and I know I would be disappointed.
Thanks for the great review!
Cinema Rat
Rat Chat
Happy watching - CR