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My Sister's Keeper

movies|my%20sister's%20keeper|2009-07-30

Sara and Brian live an idyllic life with their young son and daughter. But their family is rocked by sudden, heartbreaking news that forces them to make a difficult and unorthodox choice in order to save their baby girl's life. The parents' desperate decision raises both ethical and moral questions and rips away at the foundation of their relationship. Their actions ultimately set off a court case that threatens to tear the family apart, while revealing surprising truths that challenge everyone's perceptions of love and loyalty and give new meaning to the definition of healing.

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Editorial

Cameron Diaz in a bald cap. A dying child. Poignant scenes shattered by mediocre "rock" ballads blasting out lame lyrics like tacky narration. Uneven focus upon key characters. Illogical leaps.

Hands up if you expected cancer drama My Sister's Keeper would contain the aforementioned elements - and that the film would suck hard as a consequence? So that's most of you, then.

Anyone predict the Hollywood adaptation of Jodi Picoult's emotive bestseller could rise above shortcomings to deliver a powerful, moving experience of complex family issues? If you did, your optimism has been rewarded by The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes' mainstream but solid handling of challenging material. Only the coldest heart could resist being affected by such a clever arrangement of heartstring-plucking issues.

Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin, great as always) is 11 years old and is over helping older sister Kate (Medium's Sofia Vassilieva) in her battle against leukemia. Anna was created via IVF to be a perfect genetic match for Kate and, since birth, Anna has been donating blood, bone marrow and the like to her sick sister.

Hiring flashy lawyer Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin, restraining the cheese for the most part), Anna sues her parents Sara (Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric) for the medical rights to her body. Sara quit her legal career to care for Kate and this domineering maternal machine refuses to hear any opposition to her obsessive drive to save her dying daughter.

Picoult's tearjerking concoction of moral, ethical and emotional dilemmas is well established by Cassavetes and his fine ensemble. The novel's technique of multi-character perspective is upheld early on but is dropped halfway through, shifting attention from everyone involved to pivotal events impacting Kate.

This means that the important court case is often sidelined, and how the Fitzgeralds deal with its implications is also skated over. Still, you'll feel guilty nitpicking at My Sister's Keepers faults, because they can't undo how involved you are in the complex death march of Kate (few Hollywood productions show dying children as frankly as this film does).

With such a potent core, it's easy to shrug off the run-of-the-mill trappings which Cassavetes falls back on. Assisting constant engagment is the top cast, with Diaz most impressive because few would have believed she could play such a tough-to-love woman.

Once you get past being distracted by Diaz as a stern, desperate housewife, her dedicated performance says a lot about how bittersweet My Sister's Keeper will stay with you long after leaving the cinema - even if you still wish it could have been presented differently.

Hilton Thomas