My Sister's Keeper (film)

''My Sister's Keeper'' is a 2009 American melodrama film directed by Nick Cassavetes and starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva and Jason Patric. Based on Jodi Picoult's 2004 novel of the same name, which is also based on Marissa and Anissa Ayala. On June 26, 2009, the film was released to cinemas in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

Plot

Young Kate Fitzgerald is diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia, devastating her parents, firefighter Brian and lawyer Sara. As neither parent nor Kate's older brother Jesse are a genetic match, Brian and Sara conceive a savior sister, Anna, through in vitro fertilization.

Beginning with the harvest of her umbilical cord at birth, Anna has donated compatible blood and stem cells to Kate, and her life has been full of hospitalizations, growth hormone injections, opioid painkillers, sleeping pills, bleeding, and infections. Sara has no qualms over using Anna's body to treat Kate's and fully believes Anna is a willing donor, while Brian, who is closer to Anna, has his misgivings. Kate also shares a close relationship with Anna, and secretly feels guilty for the ways in which her illness has affected her siblings – for example, Jesse's dyslexia went unnoticed for years as Kate received all of their parents' attention, causing his grades to suffer.

At age fifteen, Kate goes into kidney failure, requiring 11-year-old Anna to donate one of her kidneys, which will severely impact her quality of life. With Jesse's help, Anna approaches attorney Campbell Alexander to sue her parents for medical emancipation. The secretly epileptic Campbell sympathizes with Anna's feeling of not having control over her own body, and takes her case pro bono. Representing Anna as her guardian ''ad litem'', he files a suit for partial termination of parental rights. This causes a rift between Anna and Sara, and Brian moves Anna into his fire station to separate them.

Prior to Kate's kidney failure, she met and began dating fellow cancer patient Taylor. After attending a hospital prom for teen patients, they had sex for the first time; Taylor died shortly afterward. Distraught by Taylor's passing, Kate attempted suicide by overdosing on painkillers before Anna stopped her.

In the present, Sara fails to get the suit thrown out and it proceeds to trial. Shortly before the hearing, Kate requests one last trip to the beach. Brian discharges her from the hospital for the day. Sara objects, but Brian threatens to leave Sara if she does not join them. They all enjoy one final family outing.

At the hearing, Jesse intervenes during Sara's aggressive cross-examination of Anna and forces her to confess that she is acting under Kate's wishes instead of her own. While Anna had originally been willing to donate her kidney, Kate asked her to refuse, knowing she would not survive another operation and having endured enough of both her own and her family's suffering. Finally acknowledging that Kate is ready to die, Sara says goodbye to her on her deathbed.

After Kate dies, Campbell reports that Anna has won the case. Now reconciled, the family moves on with their lives. Sara, who gave up practicing law to look after Kate, returns to work, Brian retires from firefighting and counsels troubled youths, and Jesse enters college. Every year on Kate's birthday, the family goes to Montana, which was Kate's "most favorite place in the world". In a voice-over, Anna concludes that she was not born merely to save her sister, she was born because she had a sister, and that their relationship continues even in death.

Cast

Production

Sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning were originally cast to play Kate and Anna respectively, until Dakota learned that she would be required to shave her head for the role. She dropped out of the film as did Elle. Jodi Picoult said in interview she regretted letting Nick Cassavetes direct the film, as he changed its ending from her novel. In the novel Anna gains medical emancipation and indicates to Campbell that she wishes to donate a kidney to Kate anyway, but is killed in a car crash on the way home from court. Campbell approves the organ transplant and Kate's life is saved.

Reception

Critical response

''My Sister's Keeper'' received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 47% of reviews for the film were positive, based on 139 reviews, with an average rating of 5.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''My Sister's Keeper'' gets fine performances from its adult and child actors, but the director's heavy-handed approach turns a worthy emotional subject into an overly melodramatic tearjerker." Another aggregator, Metacritic, reported a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 28 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Box office

In its opening weekend, it placed fifth with a total of $12,442,212, behind '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'', '' The Proposal'' (second weekend), ''The Hangover'' (fourth weekend), and '' Up'' (fifth weekend). The film left theatres on October 8, 2009, with a domestic total of $49,200,230 with a further $46,459,927 from foreign markets. It has grossed $95,660,157 worldwide.

Awards

Soundtrack

Trailer:
* Vega4 – "Life Is Beautiful"
TV spot:
* James Blunt – " Carry You Home"
* Plain White T's – " 1, 2, 3, 4"
* Tyrone Wells – "More"
Movie:
* Don Ho – "Tiny Bubbles"
* E.G. Daily – " Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries"
* Priscilla Ahn – "Find Back Home"
* Jimmy Scott – "Heaven"
* Regina Spektor – "Better"
* Jonah Johnson – "With You"
* Greg Laswell – "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"
* Pete Yorn – "Don't Wanna Cry"
* Phil Xenidis – "Kill Me"
* Jeff Buckley – "We All Fall in Love Sometimes"
* Edwina Hayes – " Feels Like Home"
* Hana Pestle – "These Two Hands"

References

External links

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2009 films
2000s legal drama films
American legal drama films
Films about cancer in the United States
Films about death
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about lawyers
Films about sisters
Films based on works by Jodi Picoult
Films directed by Nick Cassavetes
Films scored by Aaron Zigman
Films set in California
2009 drama films
New Line Cinema films
Warner Bros. films
Medical ethics in fiction
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
Films about organ transplantation
Teen Choice Award winning films