Heraldnet.com
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2009 12:56 pm
LocalNorthwestNation & WorldPoliticsSpecial ReportsPhotosColumnistsMultimedia 
 
WEEK IN REVIEW
Monday


Pearl Harbor's voices of the past
Taxes needed to close state's growing deficit?
Grant could help county's residents all be heal...
Sunday


Swine flu lingers, making traditional flu seaso...
Two vie to serve as Snohomish County prosecutor
Families get an early gift: free Christmas trees
Saturday


Gift charity draws Snohomish County families in...
Fears over commercial air service at Paine Fiel...
Donated safe gives Marysville museum a mystery
Friday


From behind bars, pal tells Colton Harris-Moore...
Commercial airlines would cause few problems at...
Fund set up to benefit children of couple kille...
Thursday


5 die of swine flu in Snohomish County
Red Cross honors acts of heroism, many by ordin...
Barista clothing rules delayed by County Council
Wednesday


Father gets 13 years in 6-year-old's fatal shoo...
‘One bad choice' blamed in death of 4 fri...
Reps. Larsen, Inslee split on Obama's plans for...
Tuesday


Lynnwood swimmer turns therapy into competitive...
Highway 9 crash is worst alcohol-related accide...
Crash victim warned his students against DUI
 

ADVERTISEMENT

Entertainment   Print This Article  Email This Page  Subscribe Now! facebook digg reddit del.icio.us fark stumble

(click to enlarge)
Associated Press/New Line Cinema, Sidney Baldwin Sara Fitzgerald (Cameron Diaz) and her daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who has leukemia, in “My Sister's Keeper.”
 
ADVERTISEMENT

 
 
CONTACT THE HERALD
Melanie Munk, Features Editor
munk@heraldnet.com
 
Published: Friday, June 26, 2009

Tighter focus would have improved 'My Sister's Keeper'

"My Sister's Keeper," an adaptation of the novel by Jodi Picoult, has to do with emancipation, a theme that the movie itself unwittingly plays into.

Within this structurally baggy weepie, at least two perfectly good movies fight to break free, one a provocative legal thriller, the other a melodrama.

If director Nick Cassavetes had decided to make just one of those films, "My Sister's Keeper" would have provided a nifty piece of counterprogramming to the fare on most screens. He did succeed in creating an adaptation that, although departing dramatically from such key elements as the book's ending, will please fans.

Anna (Abigail Breslin) is an 11-year-old conceived by her parents (Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric) in order to harvest umbilical-cord blood, bone marrow and various organs for their daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who has leukemia.

Anna has hired an attorney (Alec Baldwin), demanding to be "medically emancipated" from her parents -- she doesn't want to donate the kidney she was bred to give up.

As long as the movie stays with that issue, it toggles smoothly between intellectual arguments and rank emotionalism. But then the focus turns to Kate's story, when she meets a fellow patient and falls in love. It's an undeniably affecting sequence, but it represents one of several tonal shifts that make the film an ever-widening shaggy dog story.

Breslin and Vassilieva acquit themselves beautifully. Diaz plays their mom with a careworn absence of vanity.

Perhaps a moment of silence is in order to recognize the fact that one of Hollywood's most delectable pop tarts is playing the mother of teenagers (meaning I must be 100 years old).

READER COMMENTS
Be the first to comment.
You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet.

To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click hereLog out

1. Man arrested in fatal shooting of brother
2. Highway 9 crash victims memorialized
3. Taxes needed to close state's growing deficit?
4. Confrontation led to elderly man's death, police say
5. Fire sends shoppers fleeing JC Penney at Alderwood
6. Snohomish salon owner has a venture with style
7. Pearl Harbor's voices of the past
8. Vikings’ Henderson breaks leg against Cardinals
9. Boeing shares soar as 787 first flight draws near
10. New law aims to deny some felons bail
Enterprise Newspaper Snohomish County Business Journal
Wildcats fall to familar foe in semis
‘Nutcracker' times three
Road warrior
Mavericks reloading
Holiday Lightings & Santa Sightings
Cities prepare for winter blast repeat
Wolfpack duo takes last shot at state tourney
This Weekend in Your Town
Tips for the stormy season
The Enterprise Online Newspaper


20% Off Re-Upholstery
or Custom Furniture!

Buy 1 Dinner Entree
Get 2nd 50% Off

Holiday Getaway
$99 dbl Occupancy

15% Off
All Repairs!

20% Off Dinner
Up to $75 Value!

$2.99 Chili Dog
$3.99 Fish Burger

$2 OFF
at Box Office

Holiday Specials
up to 25% off!

FREE 6 lb. Pad w/
30yd Carpet Purchase

Always Free
Transmission Diagnostic

$95 Dryer Vent Cleaning!
$99 Whole House Duct Cleaning!

Oil - Snohomish County
Low Prices - Fill Now!

Nutcracker
Family Packs Available

75% OFF
Many Items. Hurry!

$5 Off
Stylecut

25% off Bath & Groom
New Customers

Special Rebate Offers!
Plus Additional 30% OFF!

Buy 1 Get 1 FREE
Lube Oil Filter

Over 1 Million Lights
Lights of Christmas

Holiday Specials
up to 25% off!
Wild Birds Unlimited
TODAY'S TOP JOBS
 View All Top Jobs 
Top Cars
Top Homes

ADVERTISEMENT