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
Young 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, who is closer to Anna, has his own 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, causing his grades to suffer.

At age fifteen, Kate goes into kidney failure, requiring 11-year-old Anna to donate one of her kidneys, which will heavily 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 to her plight, 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. Taylor dies a few days later. Kate attempts suicide by overdosing on painkillers before Anna stops her.

After Sara fails to get the suit thrown out, it proceeds to trial. Shortly before the hearing, Kate requests one last trip to the beach. Brian agrees, discharging 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. The Fitzgeralds all enjoy one final family outing.

At the hearing, Jesse intervenes during Sara's aggressive cross-examination of Anna and forces Anna to confess that she is acting under Kate's wishes instead of her own. While Anna had genuinely been willing to donate her kidney, Kate asked her to refuse, knowing she would not survive another operation and having endured enough of both her own and her family's suffering. 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 begins college. In a voice-over, Anna explains 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.

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.

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.

Soundtrack
Trailer: TV spot: Movie:
 * Vega4 – "Life Is Beautiful"
 * James Blunt – "Carry You Home"
 * Plain White T's – "1, 2, 3, 4"
 * Tyrone Wells – "More"
 * Don Ho – "Tiny Bubbles"
 * E.G. Daily – "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries"
 * Priscilla Ahn – "Find My Way Back Home"
 * Jimmy Scott – "Heaven"
 * Regina Spektor – "Better"
 * Jonah Johnson – "With You"
 * Greg Laswell – "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"
 * Pete Yorn – "Don't Wanna Cry"
 * Phil Xenidis – "Kill Me"
 * Jeff Buckley – "We All Fall in Love Sometimes"
 * Edwina Hayes – "Feels Like Home"
 * Hana Pestle – "These Two Hands"