Film Review

My Sister's Keeper

Film Review by the Guardian (2009)

Production year: 2009

Country: USA

Cert (UK): 12A

Runtime: 106 mins

Directors: Nick Cassavetes

Cast: Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Alex Baldwin, Cameron Diaz, Emily Deschanel, Evan Ellingson, Jason Patric, Joan Cusack, Sofia Vassilieva

(Full Review available at http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jun/26/my-sisters-keeper-film-review )

Description of storyline

The Guardians initial summary of this film is “Child- Cancer- Courage”. These themes run throughout the film and make up most of the emotional storyline.

This film review supplies a number of different descriptions and adjectives of the storyline. This film is portrayed as a “heart-tugging bestseller”, and “a 109-minute soft-focus Calvary of empathy, aspirational lifestyle choices and upscale family values with a tastefully rendered terminal illness”. This description of My Sister’s Keeper presents how this film and the storyline affect audiences and their emotions. This allows us a guide to how we want to make our target audience feel.

The guardian’s view that the risky storyline is the only different and compelling aspect of this film is revealed in their complaint that the twist of Anna law suit being demanded by Kate herself to allow her to die is a way to revert from angering the audience. They states that the only reason for the sisters relationship to be portrayed so affectionately and lovingly, described as “a glassy-eyed seraphic adoration of each other”, is due to the “twist which is also an outrageous cop-out, a get-out clause cancelling the high concept that suckered us into the story in the first place, and which was the only risky or interesting thing about it.” This influences our ideas about our own storyline. Viewing from this review, an outrageous twist in the storyline would be unrealistic and could damage the effect of the entire film. This is evidence that this genre and type of film is risky to create and plan and that it is better to keep to a simple idea to create a more powerful effect.

Characters

This film has a network of strong, personal characters that influence the storyline prominently. Cameron Diaz stars as the “life-affirmingly brave mom”. Though this character can be interpreted in a variety of ways throughout the film, she is mainly portrayed as a loving mother and persistent fighter.

The montage of the family on a happy, loving day out is reviewed by the guardian as “portraying the family’s connection and bond”. Though they are all shown to be challenged in life, connected to Kate’s terminal illness or through their own personal problem, each member of this family are shown as kind, affectionate characters who love one another dearly.

The main problem that the guardian make apparent about the characters in this touching film is the inconsistencies with Cameron Diaz’ characters appearance. They state that when Diaz shaves off her hair to support Kate, the time frame and shots of her hairs re-growth is unrealistic. “There's no nonsense about one scene showing it stubbly, then another showing it short. It just grows back exactly as it was. For heaven's sake, Mr Cassavetes” This is the guardians main complaint about My Sisters Keeper.

Shots

A shot that the guardian’s review comments on is the zoom close-up of the protagonist of the film, Anna. She is described as being in a “stunned trance, evidently beginning to remember” To portray this, the camera is shown to do an “ultra-slow zoom into her face” This is interpreted with the joke that “it is so slow you can go out for nachos, return to your seat, and the flashback still won't have started”. This negative review of the shot acts as an example of how trying to portray emotion and events in this type of film can be difficult and if done wrong to too dramatically; it can have a bad impact upon the film. 

What we want to do

On deciding the certificate of our film, we looked to the guidance from My Sisters Keeper, which has a similar storyline and characters, although includes more dramatic and upsetting scenes. This film is certificated at 12A. However the guardian’s portrayal of this is used within a joke that emphasizes how the film affects audiences with its upsetting and heart jerking plot. “Some films have certificates like U or PG; this one should be OMG with a row of teardrops and frowny-face emoticons.”

The overall theme of My Sisters Keeper that inspires us in the creation of our own film is “Because miracles do happen”. This idea is a large part of My Sisters Keeper, for example Kate living past her expected fatality age of 5 years old. Though this theme will be presented strongly in our film, we plan to wait till the end credits to do so, so that instead of the audience anticipating a miraculous event, they focus on the little girls journey to get the magic chocolates. It will be portrayed in the ending scenes where the elder sister receives the magic chocolates to cure her terminal illness, and we further plan to interpret a scene after the end credits that show the two sisters walking off into the distance together, allowing the audience to interpret whether the chocolate help her to recovery or whether it was the characters memory.