My Sister's Keeper

My Sister's Keeper is the kind of tearjerker that had even the men in the audience needing a tissue. I read the novel by Jodi Picoult a few years ago, so I certainly knew what to expect. Director and screenplay writer Nick Cassavetes (along with Jeremy Leven) took the film in a slightly different direction from the novel. There are some plot and character variations, and the end of the film is better than the shocking end of the novel.

Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) wants to be medically emancipated from her parents, Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric). Anna was conceived via invitro fertilization with the hopes of saving her cancer-stricken sister, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva). Unfortunately, Kate is in desperate need of a kidney since her body is failing, and Anna is a perfect match.

Anna turns to lawyer Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin) to help her win the rights to her own body. Her parents are devastated when they learn of her wishes, especially her mother who has given up just about everything to help save Kate. Just as the family is about to fall apart, things come back together. We see flashbacks of a sweet relationship between Kate and another cancer patient, Taylor Ambrose (Thomas Dekker).

My Sister's Keeper is touching and heart breaking. The convoluted plot was a problem at times for the film. Times and places kept switching, and it was hard for the audience to keep up. The actors were all well chosen though. Vassilieva and Diaz especially did an excellent job.