My Sister's Keeper (DVD)

...of the Jodi Picoult novel My Sisters Keeper, I’ve been umming and awwing over whether to go and see it. The book I could never read again, I didn’t really completely enjoy it, I found the ending to be a bit of a problem and it just didn’t really feel right in my head. When I heard however that they had changed the ending for the movie, it made the decision for me, and I knew I had to see it.

==The Plot==

When their ...
...in the first place, in my opinion it wasn’t the best book, I’m not a huge fan of Jodi Picoult, but I think this has to be one of my favourite romantic comedies ever.

The main thing that stood out for me in this movie is the contrast they use, one minute you’ll be sobbing your heart out and then they give you a cooling off period where you will probably laugh and smile and then they’re back again making you cry. You do get this throughout ... more

Ever since I heard back in 2008 that they were making a film adaptation of the Jodi Picoult novel My Sisters Keeper, I’ve been umming and awwing over whether to go and see it. The book I could never read again, I didn’t really completely enjoy it, I found the ending to be a bit of a problem and it just didn’t really feel right in my head. When I heard however that they had changed the ending for the movie, it made the decision for me, and I knew I had to see it.

The Plot

When their young daughter Kate is diagnosed with leukaemia, Kate and Brian Fitzgerald are in despair. Then Kate’s doctor suggests quite an unorthodox medical procedure to maybe save Kate’s life. Kate is in dire need of bone marrow, and because her brother and parents are not matches it doesn’t look good for her, the doctor suggests that they make a donor baby, a 100% perfect match of Kate. So they have Anna.

The story is told from many different points of views, mainly Anna’s. She is now 11 years old and is tired of having to give up her body all the time and allow the doctors to poke and prod her and make her life hell. She decides to sue her parents for medical emancipation, her parents are in up roar as Anna doing this means that Kate will surly die.

The Cast

Cameron Diaz- Sara Fitzgerald

Jason Patric- Brian Fitzgerald

Abigail Breslin- Anna Fitzgerald

Sofia Vassilieva- Kate Fitzgerald

Alec Baldwin- Campbell Alexander

Evan Ellingson- Jesse Fitzgerald

Thomas Dekker- Taylor

My Opinion

If any of you have seen the trailers, you’ll be able to see how moving this movie looks. After seeing this movie, I immediately texted a family member and told them not to go and see this because they can not sit through any moving film, they even had to walk out of the room when we watched Jack Frost. It was however this family member that told me to read the book in the first place, in my opinion it wasn’t the best book, I’m not a huge fan of Jodi Picoult, but I think this has to be one of my favourite romantic comedies ever.

The main thing that stood out for me in this movie is the contrast they use, one minute you’ll be sobbing your heart out and then they give you a cooling off period where you will probably laugh and smile and then they’re back again making you cry. You do get this throughout the whole movie and I just thought it was a beautiful way to do it, because if they hadn’t I don’t think most of the people in the cinema would have been able to sit through the film, I know our whole row had tears streaming down their faces, I went through a whole packet of tissues myself.

The movie is not just about cancer, it’s about the decisions you have to make as parents or as siblings in life to do not only what’s best for yourself but the other people in your life as well. The movie does focus quite a bit on Kate’s cancer, which includes her going through the chemo, going through loosing her hair, tossing her cookies and even the nose bleeds that occur with her type of cancer.

The Acting

This was the reason why the filmed worked in my opinion, on the cover for the film you get a picture of Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin and then a small picture of Sofia Vassilieva. I think this is quite wrong, it is definetly done for publicity purposes because Vassilieva is an unknown where as almost everyone knows Diaz and Breslin.

I’ll talk about the lead character of Kate first, in my eyes the reason why this movie worked so well. Vassilieva is such a beautiful actress, she managed to put on such a hard performance, and I’m sure such an emotional performance. She had to go through 90% of the film with no hair and chapped lips, and the make up used throughout the whole film to show the effects of cancer on her body was just amazing and I really have to give kudos to the make up artists for this. Vassilieva was just amazing in this movie, and I think she managed to make it even more emotional than I think it should have been. She managed to show the angst she must be feeling, due to the fact that she knows she’s dying, it’s inevitable, however she also showed the fact that really she’s not scared of dying anymore, she’s lived and she just wants her family to be happy.

Abigail Breslin is a fantastic choice for Anna, she’s lovely in this movie just like she is in all of the movies she’s ever been in. She’s not the lead character however, if I remember rightly the book was mainly Anna’s point of view, however in this film, Anna does play a back seat to Kate and Sara and I think that the publicists have done wrong by not really showing this. She is however one of the most known actresses in the movie so I can understand why she’s doing it. A fantastic performance by this actress.

Cameron Diaz’s performance is probably the most talked about, we recently watched a show on the Bio channel about Diaz, saying that when she was cast in the Mask she had no training as an actress what so ever. It’s been over 10 years now, but boy is this performance amazing. She plays the part so well, and throughout the film she makes you cry quite a bit with her gut wrenching choices and the fact that she has to go against one daughter and make her do something she doesn’t want to do to save her other daughters life.

The rest of the cast were just as fantastic, Jason Patrik (yes the hot guy from The Lost Boys) plays the dad, who is in the middle, he understands Anna’s want to stop doing this and helps her as much as he can. He was fantastic in this film, as was Evan Ellingson who played his song Jesse. A fantastic actor and he was an integral part to the film. Alec Baldwin plays Campbell the lawyer who takes on Anna’s case. A great performance but he’s overshined by the three leading ladies in the film. Thomas Dekker (John Connor from the TV show) plays Taylor, the fellow leukaemia patient who falls hard for Kate and who makes her life very different. A beautiful performance by this guy and a little bit of eye candy for us girls.

The Story

The story is quite obvious, it wasn’t as much in the book but the film every thing happens how it should have happened and you really are smiling through your tears at the end. I love the fact that they changed the story so much from the book however at the same time put a lot of it into it, I think the main thing was the Point Of Views. I loved this in the book, and they did this in the film a lot and it just helped the movie flow and allowed a lot of depth to the movie for people that don’t already know the characters.

We also get quite a lot of flashbacks in the movie, they’re not always obvious, however by the time the flashback is finished, you’re probably crying so you don’t really care that they are not the most obvious of things. The story is told in the most beautiful of ways and the fact that you really know what’s going to happen doesn’t’ really matter.

Nick Cassavetes- Director

If you’ve seen The Notebook, imagine the emotion you felt when watching that, then times it by 200 and then you’ll understand My Sister’s Keeper. Cassavetes has done it again, he’s took a well known upsetting novel and turned it into a masterpiece, and an even more upsetting film. If done right, I usually do prefer movies to the books, I am an aspiring Director so I understand how much has to go into putting it onto the big screen and the reasons behind changing so many things.

Some people moan that they have changed the ending of this film, some people think it should have been the same as the book, however I think the ending that Cassavettes chose as he was also co-writer of the film was just fantastic. He made it flow within the movie and I think if they had put the ending of the book into the film, then a lot of people would have been angry, and it wouldn’t have worked as well. They made the film with this ending in mind, and if what happened in the book happened in the film, it would have ruined the ethos of the movie.

Cinematography

The whole film has this very bright feel about it, if you’ve seen The Notebook then you might understand what I mean. Cassavettes tries to use things like beaches and light rooms to add a more happy feel to his movies, even when things on screen are not very happy. I liked the fact at the end, the colour of the movie sort of changed, it went quite dark to fit that particular ending.

I have to say as well the camera angles throughout the whole movie were just to perfection, you had a lot of shots behind the main character to see the other actors reaction etc, the main thing I did notice was the fact that a lot of shots were of the back of Kate’s head, showing the amazing make up work that the make up artists had amazingly put together. It was all done with this bright feeling in mind, and you can’t help but notice the nice feel that they have added to the movie to keep it light when in reality, you’re probably sobbing.

==Score/Music==

I was slightly annoyed that they didn’t use James Blunts- Carry You Home song within the movie, it was on the trailers over here in the UK, and in my opinion captured the feeling of the movie perfectly. I am actually listening to this song as I’m writing this part of the review, and I was hoping that in the movie they would have used it. It would have made me blub even more, I’m sure of it.

In the movie however, like The Notebook, you didn’t hear any ‘modern’ or well known music throughout, to be honest I didn’t recognise any of the music which means it doesn’t take you away from what’s going on, on screen. It’s beautiful and it adds to the mood of the movie brilliantly and I think in a way if they had used Blunts song then it may have ruined the movie slightly.

Goofs

The movie does have quite a few goofs, the one we did all notice was when Cameron Diaz goes to shave her hair off. It goes from curly to straight (obviously it's a wig) in seconds and it does ruin that scene, they could have at least tried to make it look the same. It also says at the beginning of the movie that Kate is a Leo however at the end on her birthday, it looks damn cold and during august/september in the place where they are, it's usually very very hot.

Trivia

Originally the actresses that were supposed to play Kate and Anna were real life sisters Elle & Dakota Fanning. However Dakota put up a hissy fit when she had to go around with a bald head, so they were kicked off. Sofia Vassilieva actually shaved her hair and eyebrows off for this role, and her real hair was made into a wig for her for the dance. She said it was the least she could do to get into her role. Even Cameron Diaz didn't do this, it shows a lot of comitment as an actress to do this.

The Book

Please don’t throw this movie to the side because they’ve changed the ending of it, I prefer this ending and just think it’s perfect for how the movie is. You will notice changes in the film, the main one for me was the fact that Julia is not in the movie at all, and I think her role was quite important in the book. Jesse’s not a hell raiser in the film, he’s just a normal teenager with dyslexia, and it is a bit of a cop out, but I don’t think they would have been able to include that within the time frame that they had.

Everything important is in the movie, except the ending of course, the emotion, the happiness, the family moments are all in the movie and if you have seen the book, be prepared to start crying before things happen, I got some weird looks for crying when the scene on the movie was quite a happy scene but I knew the heartbreak that the rest of the audience would feel in a few minutes.

==Kleenex ==

Take a pack of tissues, I don’t think everyone will cry at this movie, but most people will. I knew I was going to sob my eyes out and sat their with my sister and had to keep asking for more tissues. It’s not a depressing movie, it’s sad, but they managed to contrast it with so many happy moments that you understand by the end of the movie, that it’s not depressing, it’s the moral of the story and the fact that we must make hard choices in life, but in the end the inevitable has to happen and no matter how hard we fight, as long as we live a good life, every thing will turn alright in the end.

Final Opinion

Okay, for all of you blokes out there who are going ‘I don’t wanna see this’, there were quite a few blokes in that cinema, and I could see tears in their eyes. There was one guy in the back row looking quite pleased with himself, as he had obviously had taken his girlfriend to go and see it and by the end of the movie she was in his lap sobbing into his neck. We were laughing at that, it’s not that bad of a movie, but if you want to get on good terms with your girlfriend/wife, then take them to see this movie and lend your arm. I’m sure that a lot of guys will enjoy this movie, forget about the fact that it’s an upsetting movie, it will make you smile and it will make you think.

A fantastic movie, with just an amazing cast. It couldn’t have been any better in my mind. I really hate the fact that we now have to wait 4 months for the DVD as I really wanna see the movie again it was that good. A beautiful movie, and well worth the price of a cinema ticket.

© Kirsty 2009

 

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