Now Available on DVD: My Sister's Keeper

Whether the economy and salaries go down while unemployment and anxiety rise, we should all rest assured that there is still a constant in life: Cameron Diaz can still not act. Based on the book by Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper tells the story of a family on the brink of ruin. While sister Kate sits in the hospital preparing to die from her last battle with leukemia, her younger sister Andromeda is suing their parents for the fight to make her own decisions on her body. The back story: When Kate was under five years old, she was diagnosed with leukemia and there was no match for blood transfusions or organ donations. Therefore, Kate's mother and father decided to have a daughter who genetically matched Kate from whom the parents could harvest her organs and blood to ensure that Kate lived. This worked perfectly for about 11-12 years until Andromeda (the created daughter) decided that she wanted control over her own body and did not want to be subjected to tests and harvests. Of course this threw the entire family into shock and divided all members. If you are a reader of Jodi Picoult, you know that there is a twist to every story. However, this twist is not nearly as powerful on screen as it was on the page. Yet, that seems to be the motto for this film: read the book instead!!

In fact, there is little in common between the film and the book. Though the names are the same and the fact that one daughter sues the family for her medical rights is also the same, little else is. In this novel, there are in fact two twists that occur. Yet, the movie only showed one and the more boring one at that. If you have read the book, you would be outraged at the happy ending that the movie presents. In addition, the characters in the film are presented with much more heart and compassion than the cut-throat mom and extremely distant father in the novel. It seems as if none of the cast and crew even read the book. Instead, you would probably find dozens of copies of the novel being used as doorstops throughout the studio. Ironically, it is the movie that should find an alternative use. Overall...another dud!

-DLP