Movie Review: My Sister's Keeper

My Sister’s Keeper is a movie based on Jodi Picoult’s book, under the same title.
Brian (Jason Patric) and Sara (Cameron Diaz) Fitzgerald are two very loving parents, with the perfect life. They both have successful careers: Brian is a fire fighter, Sara a lawyer. They have two beautiful children, and everything appears to be perfect. That is until their youngest daughter; Kate (Sophia Vassilieva) is diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, the parent’s scramble to find a genetic match for her. Neither of them matches, and neither does her older brother, Jesse (Evan Elligson). Finally, after finding no donor, the parent’s decide to have another child, and make sure she is a perfect genetic match.
The movie begins by introducing us to Anna, the eleven-year-old, genetically identical now youngest daughter played by Abigail Breslin. The movie then takes us to a pawnshop, were Anna sells her locket, and we watch as she enters the law office of Campbell Alexander, played by Alec Baldwin.
Here, the brave eleven year old files for medical emancipation from her parents, stating that she is tired of giving up body parts, and specifically doesn’t want to give up her kidney, the newest item Kate needs in order to survive.
The story travels along the impeding lawsuit, shows us the twists and turns of any law story, and introduces us to a sympathetic judge, played by Joan Cusack. We watch as the disease slowly eats away at Kate, the battles with-in the lawsuit and family. The movie illustrates the attention Kate’s disease takes away from the other members of the family, the medical and very personal struggles of a young girl living, or at least trying to live, with a disease, and a marriage pulled apart. It illustrates a mother’s fighting desire to save her child, no matter what, and a father who is unsure what to do.
Many moral and ethical questions are raised through-out the film, and the movie wonderfully builds sympathy with each character, by bringing us into their narration, into their story, just like the book. Readers who enjoyed the back and forth narration will enjoy the movie because of this.
The movie, overall, does raise the questions of what’s right, what’s wrong, and what is a parent to do when one child is dying, and the other can save her, but refuses.
However, those who loved the ending in the book, beware, it's changed significantly. - Ray (Sunset)