Today, on my lonely day off, of which I should have been spending packing up our things for our move, but hey who does what they're supposed to do on their days off? Don't answer that.... Anyways, back to that sentence, I went to go see a movie. I do that occasionally by myself just because I'm... well I'm a dork. The movie of the day was My Sister's Keeper. Todd didn't want to go with me because, well he doesn't like movies based on books he liked. So here's my review:
My Sister's Keeper
Rating with out taking in book: I'd give it four stars out of five.
Rating taking in the book: I'd probably only give it about three at the most.
Synopsis from www.imdb.com : Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian Fitzgerald (Jason Patric) have just been informed that their young daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) has leukemia, and that she only has a few years to live. The doctor suggests to the parents that they try an unorthodox medical procedure of producing another child in a test-tube that would be a perfect match as a donor for Kate. Sara will try anything to save Kate, and they have a new baby Anna (Abigail Breslin) to be used as a donor for Kate. The first thing they use is blood from the umbilical cord for Kate. As years go on, the doctors must take bone marrow from Anna to give to Kate. At age 11, the next thing Anna must give to her sister is a kidney. Anna has had enough of all of these medical procedures, and she decides to sue her parents for medical emancipation and the right to decide how her body will be used. The whole family is being torn apart by Anna's decision because everyone knows what will happen to Kate if she doesn't get a new kidney.
Trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3717136921/
My Review: This comes from two directs really, one from just watching it from a movie goer's perspective and one from a reader's perspective. Let's touch base with the movie goer first. It is a touching and heart breaking story that is told from various perspectives. Its interesting that they got into everyone's head to get feelings across on this crazy story. I cried at various parts, but that was the point.
I think most of my review is really a comparison between book and movie. Here are a few parts.
- First we'll touch on the different points of view aspect. I loved this aspect in the book and I was hoping (and somewhat fearing) they would try to do this in the movie. I was sort of disappointed how they tried to pull this off. They started having it go between the different characters, but something happened where they kind of slacked off and kept it in Anna's view. Then, pop!, they remembered that that was part of the plot line and put it in to another person's view. The way that Jodi Picoult wrote it there were these character's views: Anna, Campbell, Julia, Sara, Brian, Jesse and Kate in the end. In the movie you get Anna, Campbell, Sara, Brian, Jesse and Kate. Really more of Kate and Jesse in the movie then in the book, which I liked, but there was a point of less Kate in the book. Which doesn't come across as much in the movie.
- The ending basically pissed me off. Yes, I agree that the book was a depressing story, but it was amazing and heartbreaking how it ended. I like it better then the happier ending they chose for the movie. Basically in the book, the case is won but things happen to the point that Anna gets in a car accident and Campbell (who is the one that is deemed responsible for helping Anna make medical decisions) has to make the decision to take her off life support and gives Kate the kidney she desperately needed. In the movie, Kate dies before the decision in court ever comes, even though by then you know that Anna would definitely give the kidney to Kate if she wanted it (which she didn't). Kate survives in the book to live a longer life cancer free, with Anna's sacrifice, and everyone (though sad, and not wanting to remember Anna's sacrifice) moves on to good lives. Anna, and her family, survive in the movie, but they start to grow apart and away.
- I also don't like how they kind of changed all the characters. First-- Julia, who in the book is guardian ad litem, is completely taken out, and with it the side story of Julia and Campbell, which I liked in the book, it showed there could be happy endings even in sad times. Campbell -- not a lot was changed here, but there wasn't anything to build up to with Judge and his condition, that was just a random "oh, he is epileptic, how sad, that's what the dogs for", it was more interesting building up to that conclusion in the book. Sara-- her character really didn't change, but instead they changed the perspective she was telling the story in (thought they do start it off right), Sara's character, in my mind, was stuck in the past in the book, focused on Kate's disease instead of her fracturing family, in the book this plays a lot into her character and is an insight into her and a shock when she is brought into the present. Brian -- the movie kind of just throws his character down the drain, you don't really get the impact of the firehouse and how Anna stays there, you don't get a taste of Brian being torn between the happiness of his daughters and the health of one. Jesse -- they totally screwed up this character, instead of making him an arson and drug addict, they make him dyslexic and a bum who apparently doesn't go to school, true he does get portrayed as the outsider, but you never really see the connection he grows with his family by the end and everyone forgiving each other. Anna -- really, the only thing they seemed to change for her was her age, and I'm not really sure why, in the book she is supposed to be fourteen and Kate sixteen, you also don't get a lot of the inside of Anna's head that you got in the book which I missed. Kate-- I do like that you got to know her a bit more, that is one benefit of the movie.
Yeah thats pretty much it for now
