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HTF DVD REVIEW: My Sister's Keeper (1 Viewer)

Ken_McAlinden

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Kenneth McAlinden

My Sister's Keeper

Directed By: Nick Cassavettes

Starring: Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Jason Patric, Sofia Vassilieva, Joan Cusack, Evan Ellingson


Studio: New Line/Warner

Year: 2009

Rated: PG-13

Film Length: 109 minutes

Aspect Ratio: 2.4:1/4:3

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Release Date: November 17, 2009

The Film ***½

My Sister's Keeper tells the story of the Fitzgerald family and the lengths to which they go to battle the cancer which has been afflicting their teenage daughter, Kate (Vassilieva), on and off since she was of pre-school age. As a result of the constant attention required to keep Kate alive, parents Sara (Diaz) and Brian (Patric) have less time to attend to the needs of their other children including, son Jesse (Ellingson) and daughter Anna (Breslin). In fact, Anna's very existence is owed to Kate's disease. Her parents conceived her with the help of medical science to be a genetically perfect match as a donor for Kate. As a result, young Anna has been used regularly as a donor for things like stem cells, bone marrow, and blood since she was an infant. The film begins at a pivotal moment where Kate is suffering a severe relapse and on the verge of renal failure. Anna scrounges together what money she can and approaches attorney Campbell Alexander (Baldwin) to help her achieve medical emancipation so she does not have to donate a kidney. The resulting family drama and legal case presided over by Judge De Salvo (Cusack), who recently lost a child of her own, are used as a framing device from which flashbacks from the perspectives of all of the family members fill in the details of their ups and downs over the preceding decade.

The knock on film's dealing with terminal illness is usually that they are exploiting serious medical conditions for the purpose of cheap drama. For the most part, this adaptation of the Jodi Picoult novel of the same name steers clear of such pitfalls.  Kate's Leukemia is not something that flares up at a dramatically convenient time in a soapy plot (listing examples would, of course, spoil the final reel of any such movie).  Viewers familiar with the novel will note that the substantial changes to the ending steer the film away from some of the Hollywood clichés of dramatically convenient deaths. Her disease is also not something that allows her to have outrageous "carpe diem" adventures until the film's final reel (I'm looking at you, Bucket List). Kate manages to have a handful of "stolen moments" of happiness while undergoing treatment, but they are within the realm of the reasonable. Kate's Leukemia is something she and her family have been dealing with on and off for her entire living memory. The movie is about the difficulties inherent in doing so coupled with a sobering bio-ethical dilemma.

As concerted an effort as the filmmakers make to avoid cheap melodrama, they do occasionally stumble in their efforts to achieve poignancy. There are a few too many montages set against spare moody ballads with lots of shots of the characters against long lens-blurred backgrounds to make them look isolated. These may have been acceptable as a way of giving some insight into the characters' psychological states if the film had not also heavily employed voiceover narration to illustrate their thoughts plainly. The voiceover is directly related to a literary device used in the novel to tell the story from multiple points of view, but director Cassavettes would probably have been better served to abandon it and rely on his actors and editors to convey things more cinematically. Additionally, while the change in the ending avoids a contrivance in the book that some readers found cheap and manipulative, the film still features something of a cop-out with respect to dealing with the ethical questions at the center of Anna's lawsuit for medical emancipation.

These rough edges are somewhat smoothed over by a strong cast that are at their best when underplaying. Cameron Diaz has the trickiest role in the film as a mother who has been desperately fighting for her daughter's survival for so long that she has almost forgotten how to do anything else. She is generally very good, but stumbles on a couple (but not all) of the scenes where emotions reach a boiling point. Abigail Breslin, as was established in her previous films, is scary talented for someone of her thirteen years, and is very believable in her role as a pre-teen determined to take a stand, but concerned about alienating her family. It is a credit to Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva, and Evan Ellingson that they come across convincingly as siblings even though they do not really look like they could be related. Jason Patric, Joan Cusack, and Alec Baldwin offer strong support, but suffer a bit from a screenplay that does not have room to develop their characters as much as some of the others. All three manage to sketch in a relatively complete characterization with the scenes they get without resorting to scenery chewing histrionics. Going "big" must have been especially tempting for Baldwin's TV-advertising lawyer, but he wisely avoids that trap.

The Video **

The viewer has the choice to watch the film in either a widescreen version that is letterboxed to 2.4:1 inside of a 16:9 enhanced frame or a 4:3 reformatted full frame presentation. For the purpose of this review, I only viewed the widescreen presentation. The video quality is extremely disappointing, and the main culprit is poor compression. The image is riddled with compression artifacts which cause heavy mosquito noise around moving objects (camera pans are especially affected) and frequently result in "blockiness" in dark areas of the screen. There is a haze of unnatural digital grain obscuring what were intended to be some highly stylized visuals.

The Audio ***½

The Dolby Digital 5.1 English audio track presents the relatively restrained theatrical mix with acceptable fidelity. The mix is normally focused on the front channels with the surrounds used to provide light but fairly constant ambience. This makes sense for the relatively intimate nature of the drama, which takes place 90% indoors. There is also an alternate Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish language dub track on the disc.

The Extras **

When the disc is first inserted into a player, the viewer is greeted with the following series of skippable promos. All are presented in 4:3 video. letterboxed when appropriate, with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound:
  • Warner Blu-Ray Promo (16:9 enhanced video - 1:43)
  • Four Christmases DVD trailer (2:24)
  • The Time Traveler's Wife Theatrical Trailer (2:28)
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince DVD/BD Trailer (2:20)

The disc forgoes a Special Features menu since there is only one available.  From the main menu, the viewer can select Additional Scenes which will bring up a sub menu offering the chance to view eight deleted or extended scenes in 4:3 letterboxed video with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound.  The scenes run 16:23 if "Play All" is selected and include short segments from the final cut of teh movie to establish the context of where they would have appeared.  They are identified as follows:
  • Tarot Cards (1:11) - Is a brief scene in which Kate and Anna play with Tarot cards. It would have helped to have them interact a bit more, but this scene is a bit obvious when the "death" card is turned
  • Sara Tucks in Anna (1:30) has Sara apologizing for her behavior earlier in the day and Anna forgiving her
  • Brian Confronts Campbell/Courthouse Entrance (1:38) features two scenes, one with Brian warning Campbell not to exploit his daughter to promote himself and a subsequent one where the eccentric Campbell taunts a security guard before being let into the courthouse by another guard who knows him.
  • Brian and Kate in Hospital (1:57) Extends the scene after Brian learns that Kate would like to visit the beach by having Kate ask him some poignant questions about the effect of her illness on the family.
  • Sara Preps/Brian Tucks in Anna (2:00) is two scenes, one with Kate preparing for the trial with the help of her sister and son and a subsequent one where Brian tucks in Anna and admits to being confused about the right thing to do
  • Brian's Testimony (3:25) features Brian's testimony at the hearing under questioning from Campbell
  • Sara Cross-Examines Brian (3:03) follows on the previous scene by having Brian cross-examined by his wife who elicits some answers that are tough for her to hear.
  • Alternate Suicide Scene (1:35) features some slight differences in dialog and significant extensions compared to a seen in the movie where one character attempts suicide

Packaging

The single-sided dual-layered DVD-9 disc comes packaged in an Amaray-sized "Eco-Box" case with white plastic instead of the standard black.  Inside the case is an insert with a coupon code for downloading a Windows Media Digital Copy of the film.

Summary ***

My Sister's Keeper is a sensitive adaptation of the Jodi Picoult novel that avoids most of the usual pitfalls associated with movies involving terminal illness, but stumbles a bit in its efforts to achieve poignancy. It is presented on DVD with a disappointing over-compressed video presentation, an acceptable 5.1 audio track, and some interesting deleted scenes.

Regards,
 

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