My Sister's Keeper

Director Nick Cassavetes teams up once again with Jeremy Leven, who wrote the screenplay for Cassavetes 2004 romance film The Notebook, to tell the story of a girl (played by Abigail Breslen), born to be a donor for her dying sisters, who hires a lawyer (played by Alec Baldwin) to obtain the rights to her own body.

Right off the bat I have to admit that I wasn’t excited about the casting job in this film. Cameron Diaz has proven time and time again, in my opinion, that she isn’t the strongest of actresses and I can’t even recall the last time I saw Jason Patrick in a film. It worried me even more that the film seemingly revolved around Abigail Breslin’s character who, again in my opinion, tends to ham it up on the screen. I was so pleasantly surprised to find the direction in this film to be geared more towards the stronger aspects of the storyline. For starters, because the films story is basically the main character you don’t pay as much attention to the characters who most ingeniously use a lot of voice over narration in the film. This saves the actors from having to sell the emotion to the audience via body language and facial expressions, not that the cast wasn’t surprisingly effective in this regard. Another aspect of the film that makes it work is the music. Everything is in its right place in that regard allowing the music to stand in for dialogue as far as mood settings go. Your never forced to invest yourself into the film because your simply a bystander watching all of these small moments unfold and without even considering you find yourself naturally involved and drawn in.

The strongest point of the film is that its not a drama or a comedy or a romance film, it manages to be everything perfectly rolled into one and the core of the film, which is the life of Kate (played by Sofia Vassilieva), is prominent and illuminated by what the audience will quickly assume is the inevitable. Its like a collection of photographs highlighting the best parts of a life that is uncertain and because its so uncertain everything manages to become more vivid and bright and powerful. Sadly the film is going up against some very heavy competition but if you get the chance to see the film I would highly suggest doing so. It’s a remarkably beautiful and moving picture. Enjoy.