"My Sister's Keeper" presents the story of the Fitzgerald family. In this household, there are six members: mother Sara, father Brian, daughters Anna and Kate, and son Jesse. Who might be the sixth family member, you ask? It goes by the name Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia and it is an unwelcome at the family dinner table.
Based on Jodi Picoult's best-selling novel, within the movie we meet a family ravaged, torn apart and sewn together by disease. Kate Fitzgerald was diagnosed with a rare type of blood and bone marrow cancer when she was 2, and her parents decided to do something about it. Lo and behold, Anna Fitzgerald was born. She came to life in a Petri dish. She was designed and created to serve the needs of her ailing sister, Kate: a little cord blood here, some bone marrow there. This is how Anna came to be. This is how she lives. It is her purpose, and she no longer wants any part of it.
Now 11, Anna has had enough. She has decided to sue her parents for the rights to her own body, an action that would symbolically sever any ties between Anna's body parts and her parents' consent to subject them to any medical procedures. If Anna wins her case, she will have a say in whether she wanted to undergo any medical procedure to help Kate, who is currently in desperate need of a new kidney.
Played by Abigail Breslin, the Oscar-nominated leading lady of "Little Miss Sunshine," Anna is not sure if she wants to "be careful all her life," she says; she wants to play sports and have children someday while keeping both her kidneys intact. Anna understands that living with only one kidney may be risky business, so she hires attorney Alexander Campbell, played by Alec Baldwin, to represent her.
Upon hearing of her youngest daughter's mission, mom Sara Fitzgerald becomes enraged. A tough-as-nails, don't-mess-with-me former lawyer and determined woman who does everything possible to fight Kate's battles, at one point even shaving her head completely to stand by Kate, Sara decides to represent herself in the litigation case against Anna. Viewers may be surprised to see Cameron Diaz fill the shoes of Sara. A serious role such as this is a vast change from the ditzy characters of Diaz's film repertoire. Nevertheless, her efforts in "My Sister's Keeper" are certainly lauded.
Though viewers witness the constant battle between Anna and her parents, this film is truly about Kate. She is the shining star, played by Sofia Vassilieva, a face seen on the television series "Medium" as Ariel Dubois. Even through the wretchedness of flowing nosebleeds, nauseating chemotherapy, intense pain, renal failure and everything else that comes along with her leukemia, Kate offers a chapped smile to the world. She is a fighter, even though she is obviously losing the battle. Sofia does an excellent job of capturing the spunk of Kate.
An angel appears to Kate, in the form of Taylor Ambrose. Actor Thomas Dekker plays the role of a teenage cancer patient who happens to meet Kate while getting chemotherapy. An utterly sweet young love develops, though viewers sense that disease will somehow intervene. Seemingly rough around the edges and adorned in black leather and slick, equally black eye liner, Taylor enrobes himself in a tough-guy image. Perhaps it is an attempt to veil his cancer, but truthfully, he is all bark and no bite. During a particularly rough chemotherapy treatment, Taylor tenderly holds Kate's hair and soothes her as she vomits profusely into a bucket. "Some date, huh?" Kate jokes. It is a tender moment, a breath of fresh air.
Though there are plenty of humorous, smile-inducing moments throughout "My Sister's Keeper," viewers beware: this is quite an unsettling movie. Plan to bring plenty of tissues, handkerchiefs and anything that will wipe away tears. This movie is not for the faint of heart. The theater was chock-full of sniffling noses and teary eyes; a chorus of nose-blowing frequented the dark room as the Fitzgerald family dealt with the heartbreak of cancer.
Just as a magician keeps his secrets, I will not reveal the conclusion of the movie for the sake of suspense. However, to the faithful readers of Picoult's novels: be prepared for disappointment. The creatively shocking ending that Picoult had spun from imagination now has been molded and morphed into something entirely different; it now plays out as contrived and expected on screen. Picoult even wrote on her Web site, "The author has no control over the movie, and (the ending) was hard for me to accept too."
Even as the film falls flat in terms of readers' expectations, it nevertheless succeeds in delivering something worthwhile. Crisp, clear images of a family ravaged by disease flash across the screen, an accomplishment of sadly beautiful cinematography. The clashing elements of beauty and disease pervade in so many ways.
In one particular scene, the Fitzgerald family spends a day in front of the crashing, rolling waves of the beach to fulfill a wish made by a very frail Kate. The teenager is seen enveloped in a blanket, weakly smiling as the sea breeze passes by. The scenery brims with ebullient blues and greens, and everyone is laughing, even ailing, bald Kate. Perhaps this scene serves as a reminder: even as a family's world falls apart, even as a young girl takes her parents to court, even as trying times suffocate lives, not all hope is lost. There is a smile in there somewhere. "My Sister's Keeper" captures this sentiment perfectly.
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