Review: My Sister's Keeper

Review: My Sister's Keeper

Rating: **

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 44%

In the past three years, while I was focused on things like theology and biblical exegesis, a whole genre of fictional literature passed me by: chick lit. Jodi Picoult, it seems, has churned out several novels which focus on children in peril and parents in extremis. One is now a film: My Sister's Keeper.

I have not cried so much during a movie in a long time. It's a six-hankie weeper for sure. I don't mind a good cry, but I do mind feeling manipulated by what one critic called, "clunky voice overs, corny music, and maudlin montages."

The story, however, does present a solid ethical problem: Anna, the youngest child has been genetically engineered to supply her leukemic sister the stem cells and bone marrow necessary to keep that sister alive. When it becomes clear that Anna's sister needs one of her kidneys in order to survive, Anna balks and hires a successful litigator to argue that she alone has the right to decide how her body will be used. It's a compelling dilemma, but, in the end, through a plot twist, the movie does not contend with that ethical issue head on. I am told that as dissatisfying as this manipulation might be, it is not as frustrating for readers of the book as is the rewrite of the novel's original ending in the film. However, now that I know what that original ending is (I won't spoil it just in case you want to read the book), I'm really glad the film didn't go there. I think I might have thrown popcorn at the screen.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it