I gave Chantelle the pleasure of joining her to catch the rather soppy adaptation of Jodi Picoult’s 2004 novel, My Sister’s Keeper on Saturday night, and all my fellow men out there, I can confirm that this is indeed a “chicks only” movie and you would do far better catching some testosterone-driven drivel like G.I. Joe instead. That said, Chantelle absolutely loved it.
A quick summary then if you haven’t heard about it. Directed by Nick Cassavetes, My Sister’s Keeper tells the story about a tight-knit family that revolves around the eldest daughter’s life-threatening leukemia, and more specifically the ongoing battle of a mother who refuses to let her daughter die and their youngest child who was artificially conceived in order to be the genetic match for her ailing sister and as such become a living donor for her. Things take an interesting twist however when Anna, the youngest, decides that she no longer wishes to allow her body to be harvested for her sister’s sake and as such seeks legal assistance in order to sue her parents into gaining medical emancipation from them.
The story is told in a jumble of flashbacks as we explore each member of the family in part, all narrated through a lovingly pieced together scrapbook that holds the history of this pained family. Needless to say, the entire movie is a female tissue trap because according to Chantelle, she has now done her movie crying for the entire year (seriously, my sweater’s arm was completely soaked), mom went through about four tissues and ended up more than just bleary eyed and even Claire apparently emerged from the cinema looking more than a little worse for wear.
Me? Meh, really not a guy movie and in all honesty I thought they lost a lot of the strength of what could have been a good, powerful movie by jumping between different time sequences the whole time. But that said, the performances from all the actors, particularly Abigail Breslin and Cameron Diaz, were all top notch, so no complaints on that front then. Oh, and to fans of the original book, watch out, they have made a considerable change to the ending just in case you’re wondering.
Related link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Sister%27s_Keeper_(film)