My Sister's Keeper (12A)

Starring: Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Alex Baldwin, Cameron Diaz, Emily Deschanel, Evan Ellingson, Jason Patric, Joan Cusack, Sofia Vassilieva

My Sister’s Keeper is certainly not a film to see if you’re looking for a light hearted day out to the cinema. If you’re looking for something more though, it’s one to watch – just make sure you bring some tissues. Based on the best-selling book by Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper is a deep and emotional exploration of the effects of cancer on one family’s life. Shown in a truly engrossing way are the troubles and conflicts that such an illness brings. Directed by Nick Cassavettes (The Notebook), the film is a weeper in his usual fashion, but more than that is a beautiful and sensitive portrayal of a difficult to handle story.

The Fitzgerald’s are a normal American family until their world is rocked when their two year old daughter Kate (amazingly played by Sofia Vassilieva) is diagnosed with Leukaemia. Faced with the death of their much loved daughter, Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian Fitzgerald (Jason Patric) are encouraged by their doctor to conceive a ‘donor child’ – a child created in a test tube for the soul purpose of helping Kate survive. Things seem to go well until at 13, the donor child Anna (well acted by Abigail Breslin), tired of her body being harvested against her will, decides to file for ‘medical emancipation’ – the rights to her own body.

The film follows Anna’s court case loosely, whilst effectively making use of flashbacks. At first the flashbacks, heavy in the use of narrative, are slightly jarring, but the more this tool is used the more comfortably things flow, allowing us to be fully submersed into the Fitzgerald’s family life. Skipping backwards and forwards in time reveals events and truths slowly, allowing for emotionally throat catching scenes whilst not confusing or distracting the audience, something which could have easily been disastrous in the wrong hands. Instead, we come to know the Fitzgerald’s and how their life fits together and is torn apart by this horrible illness.

Certainly not lacking in strong characters, we as the audience slowly get to know each one well. Kate, who the story is stringed together by, is strong and funny, able to make light of her situation with jokes. Her guilt for tearing up the family is obvious but so well played by Sofia we don’t feel sympathy towards her but pride in her method of coping. Both young daughters are played with a precocious naturalness, something missing from most portrayals of young people in film - they seem real and rounded, like actual people. Cameron Diaz makes an impressive turn out as mother Sara, icy and determinedly fighting for her daughter’s survival against all odds, showing that in a meatier role than normally allowed, Diaz can delight as a mature and competent actress.

Strong, deep and emotionally wrought, My Sister’s Keeper is a must watch for the start of the summer. A full rounded film, it caters to many tastes and with Cassavettes gentle approach makes way for many beautiful and emotional scenes that are difficult to watch without a tear in your eye. Be warned though, with its sometimes brutal honesty of the effects of cancer, this is certainly not a light hearted blockbuster to slump into when the British Summer gives in to rain.