My Sister's Keeper

Review by:  Mack Chico Date: 06.26.2009

Rating:

“My Sister’s Keeper” is two straight hours of emotional torture. Melodramatic in its essence and shamelessly exploitative in its purpose.

Based on the best-selling novel by Jodi Picoult, the film tells the story Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric) who 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.

There are so many holes with this movie and so many questions that arise from them, that the crying your eyes out is just one way of expressing your dissatisfaction with it.
There is also the greater question of the ethics of bringing one child into the world simply to help keep another one alive, even though you may be putting that child through enormous amounts of pain and stress as a result--what would happen if that child finally decided that enough was enough and that she wanted to have some say in the matter as well? These are all intriguing questions and a smart movie would have been willing to deal with them in a thoughtful manner.

On the acting front, Cameron Diaz’s acting was stretched beyond its dramatic ability, but Alec Baldwin’s presence, as the attorney engaged by Anna to pursue her case, no matter how brief, invigorated the screen with some life and needed dry humor. Breslin ("Little Miss Sunshine") acts saintly and not at all real, while Joan Cusack, in an uncomfortably odd cameo, twitches and blinks as a judge with her own private tragedy.

All in all, this film will be appealing to those who have a flare for dramatic and love crying at a whim. Most will just be crying to get their money back.