Not a Keeper

The movie adaptation of Jodi Picoult’s popular novel “My Sister’s Keeper” is a tear-jerker to be sure, but the film falls somewhat short of an emotional “slam dunk.”

“My Sister’s Keeper” follows the story of 11-year old Anna Fitzgerald, played by the talented Abigail Breslin, the family’s youngest child who was conceived to be a blood and bone-marrow donor to her older sister – and cancer sufferer – Kate (Sofia Vassilieva).

Though Anna’s donations have kept 14-year-old Kate alive long enough for her to be considered a medical miracle, as Kate’s health declines, Anna hires the help of a local lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to sue her parents for the rights to her body to keep herself from undergoing more painful medical procedures to help her sister.

Though Anna’s unprecedented lawsuit raises some interesting issues about age and body agency, which are hinted at as a judge (Joan Cusack) hears the family’s case, these issues are more or less brushed aside. Cusack shares few moments on the screen, but her poignant, understated performance resonates throughout the entire film.

The beginning of the movie is tough to get into, with the script awkwardly jumping in and out of the perspective of all five members of the Fitzgerald family, including Anna and Kate’s mother (Cameron Diaz), father (Jason Patric) and older brother (Evan Ellingson). An abundance of inner monologues slow this part of the film down and add an element of cheesiness the story line could have done without.

Though Diaz and Patric give surprisingly powerful performances as distraught parents, some elements of realism are lost in the film’s sweeping family drama. We understand their respective roles, the tough-as-nails mother who won’t allow her sick daughter one day of fun and the passive father suffering in near-silence, but true character development is forgone in lieu of mere symbolism about the love between parents and their children.

Vassilieva shines as the cancer-stricken Kate, who is neither too saintly nor too angry, and therefore is a likeable and realistic character. A small love story between Kate and another young cancer patient (Thomas Dekker) is one of the highlights of the film and, unexpectedly, the relationship that rings truest.

Unfortunately, the movie’s ending, which fans of the book will note differs greatly from the novel, is too soft, too banal to have the true impact it could. For a movie that makes several earnest attempts to show the frayed realities that having a sick child can bring out in a family, its sickly sweet ending is quite a cop-out.