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vassilieva_fansWell, of course it's a tearjerker. Before the lights went down in the theatre, My Sister's Keeper gave a few hints towards its three-hankie status:
The film opens with a long passage of narration by youngest daughter Anna (Abigail Breslin). She explains that unlike most children, her birth was not an accident: she was engineered as an exact genetic match for her ailing sister. Since Anna's birth, when she donated cord blood, her life has been a series of hospital visits. That changes soon after Anna turns 11. She enlists the help of a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to sue for the right to her own body.
This doesn't sit well with mom Sara (Cameron Diaz) who has spent the past ten years fighting to save Kate (Sofia Vassilieva). Rounding out the family are the little-seen dad Brian (Jason Patric) and brother Jesse (Evan Ellingson). Kate and Anna are close: they call each other Sissy, braid each others hair, and discuss first loves. Their relationship is genuine and makes for an all the more heartbreaking ending. The closeness within the family is palpable and it's impossible not to feel for the characters.
As narrator Anna explains, "Everybody loves each other and we do the best we can." The girls are seen growing older as the movie slips in and out of flashback, but it's sometimes difficult to keep scenes in order. The film is bookended of with scenes of Anna as a young woman, but Breslin is never shown to age. Unless another actor is playing Anna, she is perpetually 11 years old onscreen. It's hard to fathom when she's supposed to be an elementary school student, or an adult.
In another instance, Sara unexpectedly shaves her head. It's a dramatic incident that pulls the character's ailing daughter out of bed and into a family trip to the fair. But at no other moment in time, it seems, does Diaz have short hair - and there are no scenes where her hair is growing out. Voiceovers, often an issue when dealing with films adapted from novels, feel at times intrusive. Nearly every character has a chance to tell you exactly they are feeling, but we don't get to know much about them.
We're shown that Jesse is dyslexic and likes art. That's all we know about him until the closing narration, when Jesse is credited with turning his life around and going back to school. The movie gave no indication that he wasn't in school (in fact, he's shown waiting for Anna after classes) and the only indiscretion he exhibits is coming home when his dad was waking up - once.
- It's based on a book by Jodi Picoult, whose other novels were turned into Lifetime television movies
- It's directed by Nick Cassavetes, who helmed the eternally weepy The Notebook.
- It's about a teenage girl dying of leukemia, who goes to prom at the hospital.
The film opens with a long passage of narration by youngest daughter Anna (Abigail Breslin). She explains that unlike most children, her birth was not an accident: she was engineered as an exact genetic match for her ailing sister. Since Anna's birth, when she donated cord blood, her life has been a series of hospital visits. That changes soon after Anna turns 11. She enlists the help of a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to sue for the right to her own body.
This doesn't sit well with mom Sara (Cameron Diaz) who has spent the past ten years fighting to save Kate (Sofia Vassilieva). Rounding out the family are the little-seen dad Brian (Jason Patric) and brother Jesse (Evan Ellingson). Kate and Anna are close: they call each other Sissy, braid each others hair, and discuss first loves. Their relationship is genuine and makes for an all the more heartbreaking ending. The closeness within the family is palpable and it's impossible not to feel for the characters.
As narrator Anna explains, "Everybody loves each other and we do the best we can." The girls are seen growing older as the movie slips in and out of flashback, but it's sometimes difficult to keep scenes in order. The film is bookended of with scenes of Anna as a young woman, but Breslin is never shown to age. Unless another actor is playing Anna, she is perpetually 11 years old onscreen. It's hard to fathom when she's supposed to be an elementary school student, or an adult.
In another instance, Sara unexpectedly shaves her head. It's a dramatic incident that pulls the character's ailing daughter out of bed and into a family trip to the fair. But at no other moment in time, it seems, does Diaz have short hair - and there are no scenes where her hair is growing out. Voiceovers, often an issue when dealing with films adapted from novels, feel at times intrusive. Nearly every character has a chance to tell you exactly they are feeling, but we don't get to know much about them.
We're shown that Jesse is dyslexic and likes art. That's all we know about him until the closing narration, when Jesse is credited with turning his life around and going back to school. The movie gave no indication that he wasn't in school (in fact, he's shown waiting for Anna after classes) and the only indiscretion he exhibits is coming home when his dad was waking up - once.
But these discrepancies do not distract too much from the movie's main goal: to show you a family in love and in crisis, and to increase the coffers at Kleenex. My Sister's Keeper is in theatres June 26.
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