Movie review: My sister’s keeper

                                                                                Pedro Samuel de Moura Torres

 

 

My sister’s keeper, Brazilian version is called uma prova de amor. It’s a 2009 American drama film distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by New Line Cinema, Mark Johnson Productions and Curmudgeon Films. It´s directed by Nick Cassavetes and it’s based on the national best selling novel by the author, Jodi Picoult. It was released in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom on June 26, 2009. The main settings in the film are their home, Providence Hospital, The Court House (tribunal) and the Fire Station; there are also some occasional settings, such as: the beach, garden, lagoon, etc. Starring Cameron Diaz, Sofia Vassilieva, Alec Baldwin and Abigail Breslin. The Oscar-nominated Abigail Breslin acts naturally and impressively for her age. The famous Cameron Diaz is not unfamiliar to over-acting, she´s really persuasive as a mother who struggles for her daughter’s life.

The movie tackles the nature of the human condition, the fidelity and the tie of love that binds families and loved ones. It deals also with the strength of free will. It´s a very touching, sentimental, beautiful and dramatic film inasmuch as there´s too much manifestation of emotions and contradictory feelings among their lives. The film is interlaced with flashbacks that display Kate and Anna's intimacy, as well as how Kate's illness has affected her siblings' lives and their relationships. There are some family encounters that are so beautiful and remarkable, for example: when Kate asks to go to the beach for the last time and her mother doesn’t want to let it happen. They demonstrate their care and love for the sick girl and try to provide her a life as normal as possible.

It shows the real meaning of life and how fascinating is the unity and attachment that links the beloved ones. However, they suffer family conflicts and they are always trying to overcome it. They pass through extremely complex situations, mainly Anna, the youngest one who has to be strong and irresolute in her position which would be taxing for anyone, let alone a child. A great part of the movie revolves around a tribunal with its intriguing, moving and curious case. Such case leads the spectators to argue about who is right and who is wrong. It brings an interesting dilemma to think: when does the heart (feelings) is correct and the head (reasons) is wrong? And vice-versa.        

Sara Fitzgerald (Cameron Diaz) finds out that her five year old daughter, Kate Fitzgerald (Sofia Vassilieva) is detected with an unusual kind of leukemia and that healing alternatives are restricted. Kate’s great effort for surviving turns out to be the only concern of the Fitzgerald family. Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) is her youngest sister and she was conceived through vitro fertilization in order to be a genetic match of her sick sister so that she could keep her alive. Suffering from an acute promyelocytic leukemia, Kate brings up this sad and melancholic atmosphere to her family which makes them more worried about their union and love.

When Kate turns fifteen, she begins to have renal failure. Her sister Anna is aware that she will be required by her parents to endow a kidney. Anna perceives that her life can change and that she may not be able to play soccer, to cheer-lead or be a mother. Anna tries to convince her parents that she doesn´t want to do it and carries on her mission to have autonomy of her own body. Yet, her mother is overprotective and she takes an obsessive campaign to maintain Kate alive in spite of the possible consequences it may have. She feels indignant at Anna´s choice.

In her days of hospitalization, Kate meets a fellow cancer patient, Taylor Ambrose (Thomas Dekker) whom she starts dating. They fall in love and he becomes her support when she undergoes treatments. They get to know each other more intimately and have their first sexual experience. Their meeting is so intense, fast, and at the same time, so beautiful and tragic, for the reason that they live many strong feelings together and suddenly something unexpected happen, changing their lives.

 

Despite all this, Anna Fitzgerald is on a task to reclaim her medical emancipation from her parents. She hires a lawyer called Campbell Alexander (Baldwin) to help her to conquer the rights of her own body. This attorney, knowing the dangerous and threatening situation Anna has been through, tries to help her to achieve her emancipation. Toward the end of the movie, it reveals the reason why the lawyer is so determined to help her.    

                                                         
                                                                                                Pedro Samuel de Moura Torres