Blu-Ray Review: ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ Suffers From Uplift Overkill

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CHICAGO – Sometimes all it takes is a glance at a film’s poster to know where it’s stepped wrong. The poster for “My Sister’s Keeper” shows photogenic stars Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin smiling at each other, while their saintly co-star (Sofia Vassilieva) drifts below them, blowing bubbles. Anyone who has read Jodi Picoult’s book (on which this film is based) will know that there’s no reason why these two characters should be smiling at each other, except to fool audiences into thinking this is some kind of heartwarming feel-good drama. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what filmmaker Nick Cassavetes intends to transform his source material into, and the resulting film fails to grapple with the issues Picoult’s book boldly addresses.

Blu-Ray Rating: 2.5/5.0

The premise holds great promise: eleven-year-old Anna (Breslin) was genetically engineered and conceived by her parents to be a donor to her sister Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who suffers from leukemia. After spending much of her childhood donating body parts against her will, Anna decides to sue her parents for the rights to her own body. Anna’s mother, Sara (Diaz), still thinks her daughter should go through with plans to donate a kidney, and is prepared to fight in court (see why their smiles on the poster are so inexplicable?). This material had the potential to erupt into a fascinating family courtroom drama on par with “Kramer Versus Kramer,” by dealing with the truly confounding moral dilemma at the heart of the story.

My Sister’s Keeper was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on November 17th, 2009.
Photo credit: Warner Brothers Home Video

But like the recent botched adaptation of “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” this film further illustrates the timidity of Hollywood when adapting a book considered unmarketable (despite the fact that it has a large fan base). Unlike the indie drama “Precious,” which draws a clear line between its reality and fantasy sequences, the entirety of “My Sister’s Keeper” feels like a dream. That’s because Cassavetes consistently cuts to slow-motion musical montages designed to lull the viewer into a state of comfort. It’s as if the film comes equipped with its own antidepressant medication. Since the filmmakers are afraid to make the audience feel any real pain, they drain the material of its immediacy and audacity. What should have been a devastatingly emotional drama instead becomes a mildly diverting one.

My Sister’s Keeper was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on November 17th, 2009. Photo credit: Warner Brothers Home Video

Consider a flashback in which young Anna is held down by her father and doctors as they prepare to operate on her. The girl’s disturbing screams of resistance are drowned out by E.G. Daily’s soothing “Life Is Just A Bowl of Cherries.” Though the script utilizes the book’s technique of multiple narrators, it completely changes the ending, voiding out its visceral impact.

Everyone in the film, from the leads to bit parts, is carrying around emotional baggage, except for the girl with cancer. Kate is remarkably level-headed about her untimely fate, and spends most of her time smiling. Thankfully, Vassilieva never plays directly for audience sympathies, and allows her character’s inner-strength to come through naturally. Her performance nearly saves the film, as does Breslin’s. Sadly, the rest of the cast falters. Diaz tries hard, but many of her melodramatic line-readings have an odd “valley girl” tone. The very presence of smart-alecky Alec Baldwin (as Anna’s lawyer) and twitchy-mouthed Joan Cusack (as the judge) is distracting, while Anna’s dyslexic brother (Evan Ellingson) is forgotten by his family, and the film itself.

Some stories are not meant to go down with a spoonful of sugar, and “My Sister’s Keeper” is one of them. Cassavetes’ film is too cozy, too cutesy and too superficially uplifting. I’d love to see what his father would’ve done with it.

“My Sister’s Keeper” is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 2.4:1 aspect ratio), accompanied by English and Spanish audio tracks, and comes with a digital copy. There are several deleted scenes that hint at a darker, braver approach to the material, while an unusually perky Picoult (in an exclusive Blu-ray interview) reassures her fans that she had no control over how the filmmakers changed her story.

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com