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Movies / Upcoming / My Sister's Keeper
My Sister's Keeper

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My Sister's Keeper (2009)

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Reviews Counted:124

Fresh:58

Rotten:66

Average Rating:5.6/10

Consensus: My Sister's Keeper gets fine performances from its adult and child actors, but the director's heavy-handed approach turns a worthy emotional subject into an overly melodramatic tearjerker.

Australian Rating: TBC

Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins

Genre: Dramas

Australian Theatrical Release:
Jul 30, 2009 Wide

US Box Office: $49,069,310

Synopsis: THE NOTEBOOK's Nick Cassavetes directs another tearjerking literary adaptation with this drama based on Jodi Picoult's novel. Cameron Diaz takes a detour from comedy to play Sara, the domineering... THE NOTEBOOK's Nick Cassavetes directs another tearjerking literary adaptation with this drama based on Jodi Picoult's novel. Cameron Diaz takes a detour from comedy to play Sara, the domineering mother of Kate (Sofia Vassilieva, MEDIUM), a young girl with cancer. Sara’s other daughter, 11-year-old Anna (Abigail Breslin), was conceived just to serve as a donor for her sick sister. On the outskirts of the family are father Brian (Jason Patric), who feels unable to stand up to his wife’s strength, and son Jesse (Evan Ellingson), who craves attention in the face of Kate’s illness. But the complicated situation gets more difficult when Anna hires a lawyer (played by the always excellent Alec Baldwin), so that she can control her own body and say "no" to giving a kidney to her sister. Cassavetes and Picoult both traffic in tears, so MY SISTER’S KEEPER is a perfect match between director and source writer. Even the most jaded viewers will find it hard to keep their eyes dry in the face of this emotional family tragedy, so audiences are warned to have tissues parked next to their popcorn. This drama’s stellar cast also includes Thomas Dekker as Kate’s cancer-stricken love and Joan Cusack as the judge who presides over Anna’s case. [More]

Starring: Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Sofia Vassilieva

Starring: Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Sofia Vassilieva, Joan Cusack, Jason Patric, Thomas Dekker, Emily Deschanel, Lin Shaye

Director: Nick Cassavetes

Director: Nick Cassavetes
Screenwriter: Jeremy Leven, Nick Cassavetes
Producer: Mark Johnson, Chuck Pacheco, Scott L. Goldman
Composer: Aaron Zigman
Studio: Warner Bros.

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Reviews for My Sister's Keeper

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81 - 100 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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My Sister’s Keeper, like all tearjerkers, works as a ritual as much as it does art.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
06/26/09
Sukhdev Sandhu
Sukhdev Sandhu
Daily Telegraph

Their message in My Sister's Keeper? Cancer sucks, but there's always the balm of beach scenes and an emo soundtrack.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment 1 Comment
06/26/09
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

Bring lots of tissue. If you don't tear up watching My Sister's Keeper, at least just a little, then your heart is made of stone.

Full Review Source: The Movie Kit | comment Comment
06/26/09
Kit Bowen
Kit Bowen
The Movie Kit

Once the bizarre premise is established, all the movie can do is wait for the story to play out -- it has a beginning and end, but no middle.

Full Review Source: Film.com | comment Comment
06/25/09
Eric D. Snider
Eric D. Snider
Film.com

Two straight hours of emotional torture porn that is so brutally assaultive in its determination to jerk tears from viewers that it practically leaps off the screen and into their laps in order to get to them quicker.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
06/25/09
Peter Sobczynski
Peter Sobczynski
eFilmCritic.com

No quote available.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Weekly | comment Comment
06/25/09
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Las Vegas Weekly

A motion picture of notable sensitivity and beauty, hamstrung emotions kept to a minimum. Tough, touchy, provocative, and exceptionally moving.

Full Review Source: DustinPutman.com | comment Comment
06/25/09
Dustin Putman
Dustin Putman
DustinPutman.com

How far would you go to save your child's life? How far should you go? Those are the questions posed and largely ducked in this film based on the book by Jodi Picolt.

Full Review Source: Beliefnet | comment Comment
06/25/09
Nell Minow
Nell Minow
Beliefnet

A moving story, but the film's overly romantic tone rings hollow.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
06/25/09
Rafer Guzman
Rafer Guzman
Newsday

Don't avoid My Sister's Keeper because it's a film about a serious issue. Avoid it because it approaches that issue like a very special episode of Grey's Anatomy -- complete with whining pop songs and all the comforts of cliche.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
06/25/09
Stephen Whitty
Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger

A shameless attempt at manipulation that wants but doesn't earn audience tears.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
06/25/09
Joe Neumaier
Joe Neumaier
New York Daily News

Keeper, striving to manipulate the audience, goes on a little longer than it should. However, the performances are so true that it's easy to forgive such unneeded, straight-to-the-heartstrings tactics.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
06/25/09
Mack Bates
Mack Bates
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

You may cry at the film's designated crying times, approximately every 10 minutes, like the traffic and weather. Or you may not, and wonder instead why some high-gloss weepies treat their source material quite so shamelessly.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
06/25/09
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune

Less an exercise in catharsis than an obstacle course of premise-heavy, flashback-drenched plot points, it's an emotional flat-liner, even though virtually every character (including Alec Baldwin as the lawyer) carries some hurt or grief.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
06/25/09
James Adams
James Adams
Globe and Mail

It's beautifully shot and skillfully acted, but My Sister's Keeper, an earnest family-faces-cancer drama, is a bit like a real-world horror film with 'heart,' right down to the trick ending.

Full Review Source: Baltimore Sun | comment Comment
06/25/09
Michael Sragow
Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun

This ethical drama tries to make people think about medical and family dilemmas while wringing a few tears out of them along the way.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
06/25/09
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

A perfect example of a disease-of-the-week movie done wrong.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
06/25/09
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

This book hasn’t been adapted, it’s been taken outside and shot.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
06/25/09
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

Wailing and screaming and fighting with everyone else onscreen, Cameron Diaz is giving a powerhouse performance her character doesn't warrant.

Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com | comment Comment
06/25/09
Katey Rich
Katey Rich
CinemaBlend.com

...a blatant 10 hanky weeper masquerading as something deeper, but it does some things well in spite of itself.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
06/25/09
Laura Clifford
Laura Clifford
Reeling Reviews
 
 
81 - 100 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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Latest News for My Sister's Keeper

July 26, 2009: Win a poster signed by Cameron Diaz
How would you like to have a poster of Cameron Diaz on your wall -- signed by the lady herself? To celebrate this week's release of Cameron's latest film, My Sister's Keeper,... More...

June 27, 2009: Easily the most poignant picture of the year, achieved without resorting to manipulative soap opera devices. Opens in new window
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This week at the movies, we've got robots in disguise (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, starring Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf) and a family in disrepair (My Sister's Keeper,... More...

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