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My Sister's Keeper (film)

My Sister's Keeper is a 2009 American drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes and starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva and Alec Baldwin. Based on Jodi Picoult's 2004 novel of the same name, on June 26, 2009, the film was released to cinemas in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

Plot

A young girl, Kate Fitzgerald, is diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia devastating her parents, firefighter Brian and lawyer Sara. As neither parent nor Kate's older brother Jesse are a genetic match, Brian and Sara conceive a savior sister, Anna, through in vitro fertilization. Beginning with the harvest of her umbilical cord at birth, Anna has donated compatible blood and stem cells to Kate, and her life has been full of hospitalizations, growth hormone injections, opioid painkillers, sleeping pills, bleeding, and infections. Sara has no qualms over using Anna's body to treat Kate's, and believes Anna is a willing donor. Brian is closer to Anna and has misgivings. Kate also shares a close relationship with Anna, and secretly feels guilty for the ways in which her illness has affected her siblings – for example, Jesse's dyslexia went unnoticed for years as she received all of her parents' attention, leading his grades to suffer.

Aged fifteen, Kate goes into kidney failure, requiring 11-year-old Anna to donate one of her kidneys, which will restrict her quality of life. With Jesse's help, Anna approaches attorney Campbell Alexander to sue her parents for medical emancipation. Campbell's covert epilepsy lends him sympathy, and he takes her case pro bono. Representing Anna as her guardian ad litem, he files a suit for partial termination of parental rights. This causes a rift between Anna and Sara, and Brian moves Anna into his fire station to separate them.

Kate begins dating fellow cancer patient Taylor. After attending the hospital prom for teen patients, they have sex for the first time before Taylor dies a few days later. Kate attempts suicide by overdosing on painkillers before Anna stops her.

Sara fails to get the suit thrown out and it proceeds to trial. Shortly before the hearing, Kate requests one last trip to the beach. Brian discharges her from the hospital for the day. Sara demands she be returned to hospital, but Brian threatens to divorce Sara if she does not join them. They all enjoy one final family outing.

At the hearing, Jesse intervenes during Sara's aggressive cross-examination of Anna, saying she has to admit to the truth. This causes Anna to confess that she is acting under Kate's wishes. While Anna had genuinely wanted to donate her kidney, Kate, knowing she would not survive another operation and having endured enough of both her own and her family's suffering, had asked her to refuse. Sara finally acknowledges that Kate is ready to die, and Kate dies in her sleep with her mother by her side.

After Kate's death, Campbell reports that Anna has won the case. Now reconciled, the family moves on with their lives. Sara, who gave up practicing law to look after Kate, returns to work, Brian retires from firefighting and counsels troubled youths, and Jesse enters college. Anna reveals that every year on Kate's birthday, they go to Montana, which was Kate's "most favorite place in the world". She concludes that she was not born merely to save her sister, she was born because she had a sister, and that their relationship continues even in death.

Cast

Production

Sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning were originally cast to play Kate and Anna respectively, until Dakota learned that she would be required to shave her head for the role. She dropped out of the film as then did Elle. Jodi Picoult said in interview she regretted letting Cassavetes direct the film, as he changed its ending from her novel. In the novel Anna gains medical emancipation and indicates to Campbell that she wishes to donate a kidney to Kate anyway, but is killed in a car crash on the way home from court. Campbell approves the organ transplant and Kate's life is saved.

Reception

Critical response

My Sister's Keeper received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 47% of reviews for the film were positive, based on 139 reviews, with an average rating of 5.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "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." Another aggregator, Metacritic, reported a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 28 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Box office

In its opening weekend, it placed fifth with a total of $12,442,212, behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Proposal (second weekend), The Hangover (fourth weekend), and Up (fifth weekend). The film left theatres on October 8, 2009, with a domestic total of $49,200,230 with a further $46,459,927 from foreign markets. It has grossed $95,660,157 worldwide.