Born in 1959, actor/writer/director Nick Cassavetes grew up around filmmakers, writers, actors and directors. His father, the late John Cassavetes, starred in major motion pictures and was a main player in the New York City independent film and cinema verite movement of the 1960s. His mother, actress Gena Rowlands, is still in the business today. Nick scored a critical success with his best-known movie as a director, "The Notebook," in 2004.
His latest film - which he co-wrote with Jeremy Leven and directed - is a tear-jerker that may be a bit rough on the overly emotional.
"My Sister's Keeper," based on a novel by Jodi Picoult, is ostensibly about an 11-year-old girl who sues her parents for medical independence. But there are many other stories and characters in the film, and Cassavetes develops them all fully, utilizing a great ensemble cast.
Many kids are "accidents," but young Anna (Abigail Breslin) was planned - planned in vitro to be a genetic match for her 5-year-old sister Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who was stricken with leukemia at a young age. Mom Sara (Cameron Diaz) and dad Brian (Jason Patric) made the decision so the younger sibling could provide blood transfusions, bone marrow transplants and eventually a kidney for her ailing sister. She began doing so at a tender age and she loves her sister, but at age 11, with a kidney transplant on the horizon, Anna has had enough. She pawns a gold locket, scrapes some other cash together and goes to the as-seen-on-TV (and endless billboards) lawyer Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin). The money she has is far below his fee, but he and his dog known as Judge decide to take the case - for reasons that will be revealed, along with a few other surprises, in the courtroom scene in act three.
The lawsuit, which is the subject of most reviews and previews of the film, is not the only tale told in depth.
Kate and her relationship with her mother - who refuses to accept that the girl is not going to live a long life - is really the central character of story.
Told in the ever-popular flashback mode, and with each main character providing parts of the voiceover, act two is a flashback to a recent romance Kate had with a boy she met at the hospital.
There are many touching and tender scenes between the two, including Kate's first kiss.
The strain on the relationship between Sara and Brian also escalates throughout, while the love between the young sisters is never strained, even after the lawsuit is filed.
The courtroom scene with surprises revealed leads to a coda that is fairly easy to see coming, but no less affecting.
Many of the actors here stepped outside their usual types. Diaz, best known for romantic comedies and lighter films, is terrific as the mom who gave up a lucrative law practice to devote her entire life to caring for Kate. Baldwin tones down his method and is pleasant and believable as the lawyer. Joan Cusack as a judge who has recently lost her only child to a drunk driver strays far away from her usual comedic forte. And young Breslin proves she can do drama as well as she did comedy in "Little Miss Sunshine." And she holds her own with the much more experienced cast. She's not going to be a great actress someday - she already is.
"My Sister's Keeper" may not be everyone's idea of a feel-good film for the summer, but Cassavetes and the entire cast at least keep it real.[[In-content Ad]]
Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.
