My Sister's Keeper Review
The melodrama My Sister’s Keeper released in 2009 was directed by Nick Cassavetes, who also wrote the screenplay with Jeremy Leven, based on the novel written by Jodi Picoult. I always enjoy films wherein directors have writing credits because I feel this enables said director to bring out the best in the actors and fully realize his or her vision.
The scene I chose for this assignment is the climax of the film. It is set up with the whole Fitzgerald family in the hospital room of Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), the leukemia-stricken sister of Anna (Abigail Breslin) and daughter of Sara (Cameron Diaz), with the immediate family looking strained and the extended family and friends sharing homeopathic recovery tips, mentioning that “miracles happen every day,” and even the suggestion of talking to one’s cancer cells to go away, “mind over matter,” the aunt says. In all this, close shots of Kate’s washed out face, bald head, dried lips, and exhausted manner while she tries to assure everyone with a smile that she will sincerely try her best to follow their advice, is a strong image that reminds the audience of the irony of the dialogue because she clearly is dying.
A nurse comes in and tells everyone in the room that visiting hours are over. This is heightened with a wide shot of Kate’s hospital room window and door from the outside with muted dialogue as her well wishers slowly trickle out of the room in slow motion. In addition, once the film shifts to the muted dialogue, the instrumental background music swells in time with the slow motion effect. We then suddenly hear Kate’s voice clearly, while the scene still shows her visitors leaving the room, as she says, presumably to her immediate family who are allowed to stay behind, “Hey guys, I love you all but could you go home. I need some time with mom.” The scene shifts back inside the hospital room to Kate’s dad, Brian (Jason Patric) and his pained face as he takes a moment to look at his daughter before saying, “Yeah, let’s go, come on.” Jesse (Evan Ellingson), Kate’s older brother, moves closer to Kate and whispers something the audience does not hear as Kate smiles. He then he joins his father and sister Anna in leaving the room, also in slow motion, as Anna looks back and says goodbye by wiggling her index finger and Kate does the same while she watches them go out the door; this is exactly when a more somber instrumental background music starts and sets the tone for the upcoming scenes of Kate alone with her mother.
The background music fades as we hear more of the machines beeping and Sara’s loud footsteps as she moves away from her daughter’s bedside to the door, wrapping herself even more tightly with her cardigan in a forceful manner. Kate asks, “You don’t want to talk?” Sara answers with a solid, “Nope,” and moves back to her daughter’s bedside, adjusting her hospital bed. The hospital bed slowly lowers with a shot of Kate’s bald pasty head being lowered as well and we now see a closer look at her mother’s face. Here, the ambient noise is louder. Kate asks another question, “Are you mad at me?” to which Sara replies, “I’m not mad at you, I’m just mad. You gotta get some rest, ok? Be strong for surgery,” and she finally takes a seat back at Kate’s bedside with a loud sigh. Kate looks at her mother for a moment before trying to sit up a bit looking for something under her blanket and taking out a large looking book saying, “I made this for you.” “What is it?” Sara asks as the camera focuses on her. Kate says, “It’s everything. It’s us,” and the camera moves back to Kate’s face and we see her smile again which only accentuates the dark shadows under her eyes. Her voice cracks a bit as she says this and begins to be a bit teary-eyed. The somber background music takes over as her mother slowly goes through the pages of a scrapbook that contains all of Kate’s memories from when she was little in a very vibrant collage. It even pops up to a page where a picture of Kate holding a big sign that says I love you. Sara is smiling while looking at the scrapbook while Kate smiles as well while looking at her mother’s face. The piano instrumental continues to get louder as Sara turns to a page with clear still waters and blue skies with a caption that says, “I’ll be waiting…”
More close-ups of the montage ensues which only contains happy memories even if it involves the hospital. A lot pictures that show how Kate grew up and in almost all of the pictures, she is smiling. It also contains ticket stubs, family vacation photos, postcards, thought bubbles, stickers, report cards, magazine cut-outs, etc. and these are shown even more closely as the music becomes louder. Kate then looks up from the scrapbook and straight into her mother’s eyes saying, “It was a good one, wasn’t it?” and Sara’s voice breaks and she answers in an almost whisper, “The best.”
Another beat and Kate starts reminiscing, “Remember that summer when I went away to camp and I got so scared that I’d miss you guys? Before I got on the bus, you told me to take a seat on the left side, right next to the window, so I’d be able to look back and see you there.”
Sara starts nodding and tears slowly trickle down her cheeks after holding back throughout the whole movie, “I remember,” she whispers as the camera moves back to Kate who starts crying too while saying, “I get the same seat now,” Sara’s body is suddenly rocked with guttural sobs that is completely out of character as she is the rock of the family and now it is Kate’s turn to say, “It’s going to be okay, Mom.” Kate slowly lies down on the bed almost cradling her mother while Sara completely lets go and breaks down in more heartbreaking sobs. The camera pans out from above framing both mother and daughter on the hospital bed as the dialogue becomes muted and the background music swells. As the camera continue to pan out until the point where the hospital bed with Sara and Kate is now framed by the hospital walls, we hear Anna’s voice over loud and clear, “My sister died that night. I wish I could say she made a miraculous recovery but she didn’t. She just stopped breathing.” The camera holds the shot a while longer then the scene ends.
My Sister’s Keeper is a very intelligent, complex movie which deals with medical ethics and personal morals amidst a tragic family drama but at the heart of it is the bond between mother and daughter which is brilliantly and equally gut wrenchingly depicted in the scenes discussed above. I can honestly say I have never cried so much while watching a movie in my life until I watched this particular one. I already started crying halfway through the film as the family secret unfolds and when Cameron Diaz started sobbing, I completely broke down as well. I have watched this film at least three times already and I know how it goes and ends. However, every single time I watch it and even as I type this assignment, tears are pouring out like waterfalls from my eyes. This is indeed the beauty of melodrama; especially if you’re in need of a good cry. I give it 5 out of 5 stars in the context of its genre.
