‘My Sister’s Keeper’ more than just a weeper

Alonso Duralde Film critic

Sometimes, it’s what a movie doesn’t do that’s as praiseworthy as what it does do. In the case of “My Sister’s Keeper,” director Nick Cassavetes (“The Notebook”) and his co-writer Jeremy Leven, adapting the best-seller by Jodi Picoult, get a tip of the hat for not aggressively milking tears out of this tale of a family rocked by a teen daughter’s ongoing battle with leukemia.

Granted, if you’ve ever done serious time with a loved one in an oncology ward, as far too many of us have, you’ll no doubt find your buttons being pushed a time or two. But given how easily the filmmakers could have cranked up the string section and gone for the quivering lip in soft focus, their restraint is admirable.

The film also scores points for not giving the aforementioned ailing adolescent, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), what they used to call “Ali McGraw’s disease,” named for the actress playing a leukemia patient who somehow got more beautiful as she neared death’s door in “Love Story.” Kate loses hair, vomits blood, bears scars and generally goes through the horrors that this disease wreaks upon people in real life. Kate also winds up being more central to the story than one might originally think.

Quick facts Starring: Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva, Jason Patric Director: Nick Cassavetes Robert Kenner Run time: 1 hour, 43 minutes MPAA rating: PG-13

The initial plot involves Kate’s younger sister Anna (Abigail Breslin), a child conceived in vitro by her parents Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric) to provide organs, stem cells, platelets and anything else that Kate might need to stay alive. These procedures, which have been performed on Anna since she left the womb, are of course painful and intrusive, and so Anna goes to as-seen-on-TV lawyer Campbell (Alec Baldwin) to sue her parents for medical emancipation.

Sara is horrified that Anna would refuse to continue helping her sister, while Brian understands how much has been asked of his youngest daughter without her consent. As the case proceeds, we see flashbacks of how Kate’s disease has affected the family, from the relative neglect of Anna and brother Jesse (Evan Ellingson) by their parents to Kate’s own brief, doomed fling with fellow cancer patient Taylor (Thomas Dekker).

“My Sister’s Keeper” is filled with lots of smart, lived-in moments — a hospital visit by relatives spouting positive-affirmation platitudes is smilingly endured by the family, the judge (Joan Cusack) in Anna’s case is reminded of the recent loss of her own teen daughter — so it makes the film’s third act Shocking Courtroom Reveal feel like a cheat. We’ve gotten to know and care about these characters, and the script doesn’t have to resort to these cheap theatrics to keep our attention.

Video   Cameron Diaz on her new film Cameron Diaz plays a mother in anguish over her sick daughter in her new movie, "My Sister's Keeper." Diaz forgoes the glam for her role, but it's her young co-star who really went the extra mile. Access Hollywood

The cast is uniformly fine — I now want to see Cusack, whose performance is moving but never maudlin, in more dramas, and I’m reminded that we don’t get to see Patric on the big screen nearly enough. The big revelation here, however, is Vassilieva; I’ve never watched her on “Medium,” but her performance here is a knockout. It’s a crisply unsentimental turn that slowly but surely becomes the movie’s emotional anchor.

“My Sister’s Keeper” occasionally reminds us of its origins — like most movie adaptations of novels, certain characters get short shrift. (Just what is Jesse doing hanging out on street corners favored by prostitutes?) All told, however, it’s a competent and occasionally heartbreaking drama of a young woman’s, and a family’s, perseverance.

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