My Sister’s Keeper DVD Review – Win Your Copy Here

When it comes to reviewing films, you often find yourself at odds with certain demographics which render your efforts useless. My Sister’s Keeper presents such a case merely by being directed by Nick Cassavetes, and by being based on a book by Jodi Picoult.

There are so many people who are set in their interest in such a film, that the potential use of a review is rather trivial. Whether you know you’re going to watch it, or know you aren’t, the odds are that you’re solidly in one of those camps.

That’s particularly frustrating for a movie such as this, because leaving aside Cameron Diaz (who has no shot at playing this role, and is distractingly bad among the fine work of everyone else involved), there’s actually quite a bit to recommend about it.

Our story is that of the Fitzgerald family, and the unique struggle they endure. A fairly typical family, Mom (Diaz) is a lawyer, and Dad (Jason Patric) is a fireman. The problems begin when their second child, daughter Kate, is diagnosed with cancer at a very young age. Their options are very limited, especially considering that neither of them turns out to be a match for any number of treatment possibilities that may be beneficial to Kate in the future.

Their doctor offers an option. Have another child. A child that is engineered to a certain degree in order to assure that it will be a match for Kate. Enter Anna (Abigail Breslin - Nim’s Island, Zombieland).

We come into the story when Anna is 11, but we see much of the family’s history through flashbacks. At 11, having undergone numerous medical procedures, Anna has had enough. With a kidney transplant looming on the horizon, Anna hires a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to sue for medical emancipation so that her parents cannot force her to undergo the procedure.

Mom is livid, and has a shot at taking out her anger on both her daughter and the lawyer, and immediately begins putting together her case, because the clock is ticking on this transplant. Dad is torn, and sees himself more as faced with an unfathomable dilemma. Trying to be the voice of reason in a conflict locked in emotion, he just isn’t sure what to make of anything.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

We make it through the trial, all the while catching a lot of the history through flashbacks, and in the end… well, it’s hard to tell where we are really. That alone is a wonderful move, and far beyond the intellectual capabilities of most things that fall so unerringly into such a chick-flick category. While we may find ourselves leaning to one side or the other of this story, this is a film that really only has questions, and a kind of lassitude aimed at life in general, though perhaps with a bit of hope.

What distinguishes My Sister’s Keeper from much of its genre (whatever that may be) is that while layered in sentimental syrup, there’s a moral question that’s actually live. Nothing seems more simple than, “What would you do for your child?” But, what’s the other option, not having the child that could save your child’s life? That hardly feels like the right answer either. What would you do for your child, if you had to do it to your other child… that’s a hell of a question. When it all seemed fine back in that doctor’s office… well, you hadn’t been to that theoretical idea’s seventh birthday party yet.

Floating just beneath the surface is an even more powerful look at children generally. Anna’s theories about her life ahead (even if she is only 11, and people keep saying she can’t fathom such thoughts). Kate’s collage of conversations with her family members. Older brother Jesse’s general lack of function, and perhaps self-identity. At the forefront, Anna is not a thing to be used to save Kate, but Kate is equally not a thing to be saved. At the end of the day, everything we do for one of our children we do to our other children, and though fairly sappy, that’s an interesting story.

Rating:  

The DVD has only some additional scenes in the special feature department, and while they don’t add a great deal by way of the bonus theory, they’re interesting. In particular, just to see some of the decisions, and the weight such decisions can have on the final product. For example, the two scenes which show Dad taking the stand at the trial would have made for a very different film.

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