My Sister's Keeper

Cassavetes is best known for The Notebook and his latest offering, My Sister’s Keeper, definitely lives up to expectations. Sara and Brian are living an idyllic life with their children, Jesse and Kate, when they receive heartbreaking news that Kate is suffering from leukemia. This leads them to make an unorthodox choice in conceiving a “donor child”, Anna, through in vitro fertilization in order to save Kate’s life. When Anna turns eleven, she is expected to donate her kidney to her leukemia-stricken older sister Kate (Vassilieva), who is in renal failure. Weary of the overwhelming responsibility for an eleven-year-old, Anna hires famous attorney Campbell Alexander to file for emancipation from her parents.

Cassavetes and co-screenwriter Leven, toggle between past (Kate being diagnosed with her illness, etc.) and present to add another dimension to the film. This, coupled with the frequent switching of narrators, allows us to dive further into the central characters and understand them and their feelings much better. However, this does at times make the film unclear for the audience at times. In particular, the second act has very little to do with the Sara-Anna conflict and includes several light-hearted scenes such as the family frolicking happily on a beach together. These feel odd as the friction Sara and Anna does not really surface until the very end of the film.

Nevertheless, these glitches are more than overcome by the acting which is outstanding throughout, including Cameron Diaz as Sara, Jason Patric as Brian and Alec Baldwin as Campbell Alexander. Evan Ellingson also portays Jesse, the keeper of Anna's secret and silent presence of strength for the family, well. Abigail Breslin, acts with the poise of an adult while still being a child rather than a twenty-year-old in an eleven-year-old body. The real star, however is Vassilieva. As the bald, beleaguered Kate, Vassilieva brings gritty realism to her role. It is entirely thanks to this young actress's work that My Sister's Keeper fares much better than average, and makes it an absorbing watch.

Orville D'Silva