“Deep Impact,” “Marley and Me,” and “The Time Traveler’s Wife” have been the only movies I have watched that literally brought tears to my eyes with their emotional conclusions. I prefer to call it my allergies acting up. Seasonal hay fever came about me again this week with my viewing of the 2009 film “My Sister’s Keeper.” Based on the Jodi Picoult novel of the same name (which I haven’t read but according to reviews has some considerable variances from the big screen adaptation), “My Sister’s Keeper” takes a gut wrenching and frankly awful real life scenario and tells a powerful story of an entire family dealing with the situation.
Director Nick Cassavetes came into my viewings as a young child when he co-starred with Charlie Sheen in an awful (though super cool to a nine year old) straight to video B movie called “The Wraith.” With “My Sister’s Keeper” and “The Notebook” under his credits, Cassavetes has shown that he has a place in the director’s chair – unusual for a tough guy of his ilk.
Cassevetes tells “My Sister’s Keeper” in an intriguing way. The movie mixes flashbacks with a rotational narration in which each member of the average and common Fitzgerald family takes turns at the helm of the plot.
The focal point in this case is a fifteen-year-long battle young Kate Fitzgerald (Sofia Vassilieva) has with leukemia. Each member of the Fitzgerald clan, including Kate herself, deal with the horrible illness in their own way.
I was captivated by the talents of young Abigail Breslin during last October’s horror movie onslaught with her starring role in “Haunter.” Breslin has a comanding way on screen that reveals a true talent on the rise.
In “Keeper,” Breslin plays Kate’s younger sister Anna. Breslin, just thirteen years old at the time, again does a marvelous job in a highly visible and key role. Anna loves her big sister, and shoulders the weight of the illness with more maturity than one would expect from a child. With Breslin’s performance, you never once suspect anything but perfect sincerity on all fronts.
Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric play the Fitzgerald parents. Each handles the immense stress of their firstborns terminal condition in different ways. While mother Sara is ruthless in her quest to rid the cancer from her daughter, Brian Fitzgerald remains the level headed stalwart of the family.
Each parent obviously had a different vision for the future when they were married and started raising a family. Now they must make incredible sacrifices, and the love for their daughter is shown.
At the beginning of the film, Anna reveals she was a “savior sister,” birthed via test tube to be a genetic match for her sister Kate. While a seemingly noble gesture, the burdens of this responsibility bear heavy for the young child. “I was made in a dish to be spare parts for Kate.” Anna tells local ambulance chasing attorney Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin) as she enlists his help in dealing with her parents. Baldwin is perfect for the part of the attorney – a strong on screen presence that he rightfully keeps in check in the face of the young and dominant actresses.
Both Breslin and Vassilieva are perfect. The task of playing sisters is tough at best. Both girls share a kin for the other and an obvious loving relationship, strained to the max by the illness.
In trying to keep the tones light, I fell in love with Sara’s younger sister. Aunt Kelly (played by the cosmic beauty Heather Wahlquist) is a fixture at the Fitzgerald home, helping her sister with the numerous burdens she has while doing her best to keep the mood of the family as upbeat as possible.
Wahlquist is the real life spouse of Cassevetes – I suspect she has never sat through “The Wraith.”
Emotionally charged and powerful, “My Sister’s Keeper” is obviously not a film one would sit down to watch with a bowl of popcorn and expectations of laughter, but it proves to be a great movie.
by – Matt Christopher
