'My Sister's' weeper
Sara (Cameron Diaz) comforts and draws comfort from daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva).
My Sister's Keeper
Running time: 106 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13 (profanity, mature thematic content, disturbing images, adult situations, brief teen drinking)
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"My Sister's Keeper" doesn't look or feel like a summer movie.
Nick Cassavetes' offbeat, powerful emotion-tugging tale of a family suffering through the serious illness of a teenage daughter would be a much better fit for a late fall or winter trip to the cineplex.
We're accustomed to three-hankie weepies once the bombastic action blockbusters of summer have run their special-effects-dominant course.
But here they are just the same: A tough-as-nails California mom (Cameron Diaz) fighting to keep Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), a leukemia-stricken daughter, alive at all costs. In this case, that means shutting out her husband Brian (Jason Patric), her son Jesse (Evan Ellingson) and her sister Kelly (Heather Wahlquist).
This sad drama based on Jodi Picoult's best-selling novel might have ended up as a TV tragi-drama had it not been for this story's most compelling element. Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin ("Little Miss Sunshine") makes a major acting step forward as Anna, Kate's little sister who's real purpose for being brought into the world is to provide spare parts for her dying older sister.
Even though she's only 11, Anna finds an attorney via a TV commercial and sues her family for the rights to her own body.
"I thought she was selling Girl Scout cookies when she first walked into my office," the attorney (very well-played by Alec Baldwin) says.
Cassavetes, whose directing credits include both the syrupy "The Notebook" and the hard-hitting teen drama "Alpha Dog," combines those seemingly at-odds tonal asthetics for "My Sister's Keeper."
His approach is a little heavy-handed at times. For instance, do we really need to see rain splattering across a window pane to sledge-hammer the point that something extremely sad is going on?
Overall, though, it's a loving approach to the material, perhaps because Cassavetes has a daughter of his own fighting medical challenges.
If you're a devotee of the book, don't expect Jeremy Leven (who also penned "The Notebook") to stick strictly to the printed word. The ending is changed, for one thing.
One of the deviations involves Cassavetes' casting of the judge. Even though the key character is a man in the book, Cassavetes talked Leven into rewriting the judge as a woman. There's a simple reason for that. The director always wanted to work with Joan Cusack. Let's just say that a personal wish turns into a casting coups. Cusack, who usually provides quirky comic relief, is spellbinding here as Her Honor.
Diaz, who fought through the sudden death of her own father during production last year, is strong as well. She may come off as a bit of a banshee at times, but that's just the teeth-barring toughness this role requires.
I also enjoyed very much the tough, but believable performances of Vassilieva, who portrays teen daughter Ariel Dubois on TV's "Medium," and Breslin ("Kit Kittredge," "Nim's Island").
"My Sister's Keeper" will more likely than not blindside you with plot twists once and maybe twice.
Just don't forget to pack plenty of hankies. It'll be a crying shame if you don't.
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