DVD Reviews

My Sister’s Keeper – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Nov 23, 2009, 14:30 GMT

“The truth is that most babies are the products of drunken evenings of lack or birth control. I was engineered.”

To have a sick child must be hellish. Especially when that child has leukemia and their time on the planet is short. You’d do anything to extend that time, but to have another child for spare parts seems a bit weird. Anna (Abigail Breslin) is a girl with a purpose. However, that purpose was the reason for her coming into being. Her sister Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) was diagnosed with leukemia and her parents Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric) conceived her to provide stem cells and blood transfusions for Kate’s condition on the under-the-table suggestion of one of her physicians.

Anna has grown tired of being poked and prodded for her sister’s illness and goes to showboat attorney Cameron Alexander (Alec Baldwin) to take her parents to court for “medical emancipation” so that she can’t be made to give one of her kidneys to Kate. The court case threatens to tear the already fragile family apart as well as mean the end of the dying Kate. My Sister’s Keeper is based on the novel by Jodi Picoult. The film hits all the notes that we’ve come to expect from “sick kid” films. Just reading the back of the box I was pretty much ready to dismiss the film as just another notch in that genre. However, what brought me back around to the film was Sofia Vassilieva’s strong performance. Hers is a very memorable turn in a maudlin and predictable “movie of the week” type plot. Abigail Breslin was also at the top of her game in the film as well. I’ll also give strong marks to Alec Baldwin who created a memorable lawyer who may be a bit of a shyster. Every time he came on screen I wanted to say “Denny Crane!” Of the parents, I’d give Jason Patric the gold as he also did some fine acting. It’s Cameron Diaz where I started to waffle. She’s supposed to be a she lion protecting her cub at any cost, but she just comes off annoying and bitchy. Every scene she seems to be yelling at somebody.

In the end her shrillness may be attributed to fighting a losing battle for her daughter’s life, a fight she knows she’s going to lose, but I still thought that her performance was the weakest. I’d probably be harder on the film (not that it’s easy to lambast a sick kid flick) if it weren’t for Vassilieva’s fine performance. My Sister’s Keeper is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.40:1). Special features include the high definition, 14 minute “From Picoult to Screen” that follows the film’s production. Next are 16 minutes of deleted scenes, in standard definition. My Sister’s Keeper tries to pull on the heart strings and largely succeeds in the casting of Sofia Vassilieva. She’s a trooper and even shaved her head for the role (I swear I saw bald cap lines for Cameron Diaz). The plotline is highly predictable and manipulative, like so many Lifetime television flicks. There are some good moments in there though those are bolstered by Vassilieva, Baldwin, Breslin, and Patric. The letdown might be the less-than-likeable turn from Diaz.