MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

My Sister's Keeper Rated PG-13

Directed by Nick Cassavetes.  Starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin.



Photo © Warner Brothers Pictures
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

Sixteen years ago Sara (Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric) gave birth to Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), a baby girl who was soon diagnosed with childhood leukemia.  Kate was expected to die before her fifth birthday, but their family physician suggested that they might want to consider using in vitro fertilization to produce a genetically compatible sister who could be used to generate the living tissue that might save or prolong Kate’s life. 

And so Anna (Breslin) was born and, over the years, used many times to donate blood, bone marrow and stem cells for Kate.  But now Kate is in need of a kidney, and Anna has decided that enough is enough.  She gathers up $700 and seeks the services of a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) whose ads she has seen on television. 

How far should a family go in order to save a life?  How much control should others have on how your body is used, even if you are yet a child?  These moral questions are good ones and come up frequently when one is discussing right to life issues or genetic manipulation. 

My Sister’s Keeper, based on a bestselling novel by Jodi Picoult, takes this potboiler premise and boils it down to just about nothing.  On the printed page the character of Sara is an intelligent, driven and sacrificial parent who gives up a lucrative job to care for her oldest daughter. Cameron Diaz, however, gives a strident one-note performance that turns up her anguish and passion so high that she becomes a truly unlikeable character.  Brian, on the other hand, is underwritten and unable to do much of anything except give Anna a time out from her mother. 

Sofia Vassilieva gives a heartbreaking performance as Kate, but she is denied real humanity and is depicted as a near-saint (she has teenage sex with a boy, but since he’s dying of cancer as well, even this is presented as somehow ethereal).  The film is realistic in depicting the horrible side effects of cancer and chemotherapy, but unable to conjure up a compelling courtroom drama. 

A plot twist at the end (involving an off-screen revelation that departs from the book) seemed (to me) to be unfair to an audience that had invested two hours under some false assumptions. 

Childhood cancer is a terrible burden to bear (and certainly worthy of our tears) but it’s also worthy of a better film. 

Pitchfork Rating:
Two halos (The premise of this film will keep you talking longer than your experience of the actual film.) Two pitchforks (Fairly pervasive mild swearing, implied teenage sex, and some dubious ethical decisions.]

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