Rama's Screen

I’d consider this somewhat of a melodrama but MY SISTER’S KEEPER has such an intriguing concept that the sad parts become surprisingly genuine but not perfect. If crying is the only necessary factor then by all means, every actor involved in this movie does well because… tear jerker doesn’t even come close to describing how much this movie wants to make you go bawling on the floor. I’m sure if 1 or 2 in the audience didn’t cry, the theater would throw in a tear gas.

In the film, based on Jodi Picoult’s book, Sara and Brian 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. Their actions ultimately set off a court case that threatens to tear the family apart, while revealing surprising truths that challenge everyone’s perceptions of love and loyalty and give new meaning to the definition of healing.

Although it’s based on a book, my friend Dean said that events like this did happen in real life on several occasions where parents would test-tube produce their next baby, just so that they can use that kid to save their first child who’s in need of a matching organ to stay alive. That’s the aspect that gets my attention because it’s about time an issue so touchy and yet not uncommon to be depicted on the big screen. There’s room for good story-telling when you deal with such complex situation.
But of course, MY SISTER’S KEEPER needs to bring it to the usual cliche in order to bring its target audience, the soap-opera loving moms, daughters, and girlfriends to go through what they’ve gone through a thousand times before. The thing is.. it works. Director Nick Cassavates (The Notebook) now can be considered a filmmaker that aims to make you reach for kleenex.

I gotta give props to young actress Sofia Vassilieva who gives a convincing performance as the dying girl, Kate Fitzgerald. What a brave role for a girl who has to go in the ring with Abigail Breslin and Cameron Diaz. I’ve never read the Jodi Picoult novel but it seems like writer/director Nick Cassavates just felt the need to allow Kate to have a love story so that she won’t miss out on anything before she leaves this life, which is a bit baffling because the mom, Sara, played by Cameron Diaz is supposed to be very protective, she wouldn’t even let Kate go to the beach at first but she’d let Kate have a boyfriend who’s also dying. Maybe she thinks that if her life is contained within the hospital, it would be acceptable.

Child actress Abigail Breslin never ceases to amaze me, there’s just something about her talent that’s bigger than her. As the younger sister Anna who’s been a donor child all her life and wants some kind of medical emancipation, Breslin plays it with her usual but effective grace and power that captivates your attention, you just can’t seem to look away. One of these years she’s going to get that Oscar she very much deserves.

It’ll feel a bit challenging trying to keep up with the timeline because the movie takes you from present to past to present to past again, you’ll feel like getting bounced back and forth, hoping the next scene would explain what happened or bring some kind of character development along the way. I’m not sure if having every character narrates some parts of the story is a completely good idea, because sometimes in cases like this, there’s sadness in silence but I think screenwriters Cassavetes and Leven felt like it would create too many unanswered questions if they didn’t take the time to have some kind of narration to tell the audience what’s going on at hand.

I was expecting Lorenzo’s Oil but what I got from MY SISTER’S KEEPER are a set of little episodes better left for Hallmark channel miniseries event to cover. Sometimes I wish the story would just focus on the lawsuit and Kate deteriorating as the family tries to stay together. Because that would still cause some discussions about what’s the right thing to do. Make one child suffer so the other can live, how is that ethical.. that would be a strong point that makes this movie different from any other drama out there but unfortunately, MY SISTER’S KEEPER thinks that’s not enough.

Some may argue that the love story between Kate and her boyfriend Taylor becomes the motivation resulting in Kate ready to die and accepting her fate, because she desires to run into Taylor on the other side, and I can see that, I can definitely agree with that but do we really have to go through all those emotional cliches just to come down to the familiar message of letting go?! I’m just waiting for a more original way of telling it. I’m not keeping my hopes up though.

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