My Sister's Keeper (film)
Encyclopedia
My Sister's Keeper is a 2009 American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 directed by Nick Cassavetes and starring Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona...

, Abigail Breslin
Abigail Breslin
Abigail Kathleen Breslin is an American teen actress. She is one of the youngest actresses ever to be nominated for an Academy Award....

, Sofia Vassilieva
Sofia Vassilieva
Sofia Vladimirovna Vassilieva is an American actress. She is best known for playing the children's book heroine Eloise, in two made-for-television movies, Ariel Dubois in the Emmy-winning TV series Medium, and the cancer patient Kate Fitzgerald in the 2009 film adaption of My Sister's Keeper by...

, and Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...

. Based on Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult
Jodi Lynn Picoult is an American author. She was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003. Picoult currently has some 14 million copies of her books in print worldwide.-Early life and education:...

's novel of the same name
My Sister's Keeper
My Sister's Keeper is a 2004 novel written by New York Times Best Selling author Jodi Picoult. It tells the story of 13-year-old Anna, who litigates her parents for medical emancipation when she is expected to donate a kidney to her sister Kate, who is dying from leukemia.-Plot:The story takes...

  My Sister's Keeper was released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 on June 26, 2009.

Plot

Conceived by means of in vitro fertilization, Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin
Abigail Breslin
Abigail Kathleen Breslin is an American teen actress. She is one of the youngest actresses ever to be nominated for an Academy Award....

) was brought into the world to be a genetic match for her older sister, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva
Sofia Vassilieva
Sofia Vladimirovna Vassilieva is an American actress. She is best known for playing the children's book heroine Eloise, in two made-for-television movies, Ariel Dubois in the Emmy-winning TV series Medium, and the cancer patient Kate Fitzgerald in the 2009 film adaption of My Sister's Keeper by...

), who suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia
Acute promyelocytic leukemia
Acute promyelocytic leukemia is a subtype of acute myelogenous leukemia , a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. It is also known as acute progranulocytic leukemia; APL; AML with t, PML-RARA and variants; FAB subtype M3 and M3 variant.In APL, there is an abnormal accumulation of immature...

, in order to keep her alive. Her family members are introduced one by one and each tells about how Kate's illness has affected them personally. When Kate turns 15, she goes into renal failure
Renal failure
Renal failure or kidney failure describes a medical condition in which the kidneys fail to adequately filter toxins and waste products from the blood...

. Eleven-year-old Anna knows that she will be forced by her parents to donate one of her kidneys. She also realizes that she may not be able to live the life she will want to lead - she may be unable to cheer-lead, play soccer, or be a mother. Anna tells her parents that she does not want any of this, and proceeds to sue them for medical emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...

 and the rights to her own body. Her overprotective mother, Sara (Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona...

), who leads an obsessive campaign to keep Kate alive, is indignant at Anna's decision and even strikes her across the face when she receives the notice of intended prosecution. Attorney Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...

) agrees to work for Anna as her guardian ad litem
Ad litem
Ad litem is a term used in law to refer to a party appointed by a court to act in a lawsuit on behalf of another party—for instance, a child or an incapacitated adult—who is deemed incapable of representing him or herself...

, suing for partial termination of parental rights
Parents' rights movement
The Parents' rights movement is a civil rights movement whose members are primarily interested in issues affecting fathers, mothers and children related to family law, including child custody....

. It is later learned he agreed to take the case not for the notoriety, but because he has epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...

 and understands her predicament of not having control over her own body.

The film is interlaced with flashbacks that detail Kate and Anna's closeness, as well as how Kate's illness has affected her siblings' lives and their relationships. In a flashback, Kate also meets a fellow cancer patient, Taylor Ambrose (Thomas Dekker
Thomas Dekker (actor)
Thomas Alexander Dekker is an American film and television actor and a musician. He is also a singer and has written and produced two albums. He is best known for his roles as John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Nick Szalinski on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, and Zach...

), whom she begins dating. After a date, they share their first kiss outside Kate's house, with Sara and Kate's father Brian (Jason Patric
Jason Patric
Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...

) watching from their bedroom window. After this, he becomes her boyfriend in and out of hospital and supports her as she undergoes treatment. He then asks her to the hospital's "prom" for teen patients; there, they slow-dance, then proceed to a vacant hospital room to make love. A few days later, Kate is crying because Taylor hasn't called her for several days. Her mother Sara is furious when Kate mentions they did "stuff" after the prom and storms out to ask the nurse where Taylor is, evidently believing that he had dated her daughter merely to sleep with her, and learns that he has died.

Kate makes a request to go to the beach one last time, and Brian obtains permission from her doctor and removes her from the hospital to take her and the kids. Overprotective as ever, Sara is furious when Brian shows up at the house with Kate and demands that she be returned to the hospital. Brian angrily refuses and drives off, threatening Sara with a divorce if she does not join them. Sara later shows up at the beach, where they enjoy one final family outing. To Sara's dismay, the judge (Joan Cusack
Joan Cusack
Joan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....

) refuses to grant summary dismissal
Summary judgment
In law, a summary judgment is a determination made by a court without a full trial. Such a judgment may be issued as to the merits of an entire case, or of specific issues in that case....

, and the case goes to a hearing. During the hearing, Anna and Kate's older brother, Jesse reveal that Anna's actions are actually under Kate's instruction; Kate, not wanting to live any longer, and knowing Sara refuses to hear any option other than her desired one, had gently persuaded Anna to refuse to donate her kidney. Sara is indignant at this discovery, but is finally forced by both Jesse and Brian to realize that Kate had been trying to tell her this for some time. Before the case is decided, Kate dies while sleeping at the hospital with her mother by her side. After Kate's death, Campbell brings the court decision: Anna won the case. The family moves on with their lives, but every year on Kate's birthday they go to Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

, which was her "most favorite place in the world." At the end, Anna says that their relationship continues because she will see Kate again.

Production and Cast Changes

Upon the original creation of the film adaption, Dakota
Dakota Fanning
Hannah Dakota Fanning , better known as Dakota Fanning, is an American actress. Fanning's breakthrough performance was in I Am Sam in 2001. As a child actress, she appeared in high-profile films such as Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, and Charlotte's Web...

 and Elle Fanning
Elle Fanning
Mary Elle Fanning , credited as Elle Fanning, is an American actress. She is the younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning and mainly known for her starring roles in Phoebe in Wonderland, Somewhere, Super 8 and We Bought a Zoo which will receive a theatrical release on December 23,...

 were set in place to play Kate and Anna, with Dakota playing Kate and her younger sister playing Anna. This pairing was especially convenient as the girls already closely resembled each other and were used to working together. However, when Dakota heard that she would be required to shave her head for the role, she dropped out of the film. As a result, Elle dropped too. The two sisters were quickly replaced, with Abigail Breslin
Abigail Breslin
Abigail Kathleen Breslin is an American teen actress. She is one of the youngest actresses ever to be nominated for an Academy Award....

 taking on the lead role as Anna Fitzgerald and Sofia Vassilieva
Sofia Vassilieva
Sofia Vladimirovna Vassilieva is an American actress. She is best known for playing the children's book heroine Eloise, in two made-for-television movies, Ariel Dubois in the Emmy-winning TV series Medium, and the cancer patient Kate Fitzgerald in the 2009 film adaption of My Sister's Keeper by...

 on the role of Kate Fitzgerald.

Cast

  • Cameron Diaz
    Cameron Diaz
    Cameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona...

     as Sara Fitzgerald
  • Alec Baldwin
    Alec Baldwin
    Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...

     as Campbell Alexander
  • Abigail Breslin
    Abigail Breslin
    Abigail Kathleen Breslin is an American teen actress. She is one of the youngest actresses ever to be nominated for an Academy Award....

     as Anna Fitzgerald
  • Sofia Vassilieva
    Sofia Vassilieva
    Sofia Vladimirovna Vassilieva is an American actress. She is best known for playing the children's book heroine Eloise, in two made-for-television movies, Ariel Dubois in the Emmy-winning TV series Medium, and the cancer patient Kate Fitzgerald in the 2009 film adaption of My Sister's Keeper by...

     as Kate Fitzgerald
  • Jason Patric
    Jason Patric
    Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...

     as Brian Fitzgerald
  • E.G. Daily as Nurse Susan
  • Lin Shaye
    Lin Shaye
    Linda "Lin" Shaye is an American film, theatre and television actress.-Early life:Born in Detroit, Michigan, Shaye is the daughter of Dorothy , a homemaker, and Max Mendle Shaye, a painter and supermarket owner. Her brother is film executive Robert Shaye...

     as Nurse Adele
  • Evan Ellingson
    Evan Ellingson
    Evan Taylor Ellingson is an American actor.Ellingson grew up in La Verne, California with his three older brothers.He guest-starred on MAD TV, and then had a regular role on the Fox sitcom Titus. In 2004, Evan was chosen to play Kyle Savage on the Mel Gibson-produced short-lived sitcom Complete...

     as Jesse Fitzgerald
  • Heather Wahlquist
    Heather Wahlquist
    Heather Wahlquist is an American film and television actress. She is married to director/writer Nick Cassavetes and has appeared in several of his films....

     as Aunt Kelly
  • Luke Wilson
    Luke Wilson
    Luke Cunningham Wilson is an American film actor known for his roles in Old School, Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, Legally Blonde, Idiocracy and Death at a Funeral.-Early life:...

     as Edward Alexander
  • Joan Cusack
    Joan Cusack
    Joan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....

     as Judge De Salvo
  • Thomas Dekker
    Thomas Dekker (actor)
    Thomas Alexander Dekker is an American film and television actor and a musician. He is also a singer and has written and produced two albums. He is best known for his roles as John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Nick Szalinski on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, and Zach...

     as Taylor Ambrose
  • Jeffrey Markle as Dr. Wayne
  • Emily Deschanel as Dr. Farquad
  • Amit Khanduja as Chief Surgeon
  • Olivia Hancock as Young Kate Fitzgerald

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 reports that 47% of reviews for the film were positive, based on 126 reviews. another aggregate review site Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 reported 51% positive reviews based on 28 reviews.

Box office

In its opening weekend it placed 5th with a total of $12,442,212, behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction-action film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to the 2007 film Transformers and the second installment in the live-action Transformers series...

, The Proposal
The Proposal (film)
The Proposal is a 2009 American romantic comedy film set in Sitka, Alaska. Directed by Anne Fletcher and written by Peter Chiarelli, the film features Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds as the leading roles, with Mary Steenburgen, Betty White, and Craig T. Nelson in supporting roles...

(second weekend), The Hangover
The Hangover (film)
The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. The film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha and Jeffrey Tambor...

(fourth weekend), and Up
Up (2009 film)
Up is a 2009 American computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and presented in Disney Digital 3-D. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America and opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first animated and 3D film...

(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 .

Awards

Year Award Category Recipient Result
2009 Teen Choice Award Choice Summer Movie Drama My Sister's Keeper
2009 ALMA Awards Outstanding Actress in Motion Picture Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona...

2010 Young Artist Awards
Young Artist Awards 2010
The 31st Annual Young Artist Awards ceremony, presented by the Young Artist Foundation, honored excellence of young performers under the age of 18 in the fields of film and television for the year 2009, and took place on April 11, 2010 at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn Hotel in North Hollywood,...

Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress Abigail Breslin
Abigail Breslin
Abigail Kathleen Breslin is an American teen actress. She is one of the youngest actresses ever to be nominated for an Academy Award....

Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Actor Brennan Bailey
Brennan Bailey
Brennan Bailey is an American actor, best known for his role as Danny in 2008 film Amusement. He is the brother of actor Preston Bailey. In 2010, he was nominated for a Young Artist Award for his short role in My Sister's Keeper...

Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Actress Sofia Vassilieva
Sofia Vassilieva
Sofia Vladimirovna Vassilieva is an American actress. She is best known for playing the children's book heroine Eloise, in two made-for-television movies, Ariel Dubois in the Emmy-winning TV series Medium, and the cancer patient Kate Fitzgerald in the 2009 film adaption of My Sister's Keeper by...


Changes from book

The director decided to make the ending of the movie different than the book against Picoult's wishes. Four major story threads were altered:
  • Julia Romano - In the book she's an advisor to Anna, she is also romantically involved with Campbell, and heartbroken by him when they were younger.
  • The relationship between Jesse and Brian is not explored in the film, where as in the book Jesse's character is a lot more complex as he started a lot of the fires that Brian had to put out, eventually he finds out and confronts Jesse about them.
  • The history of Campbell and Judge is explained towards the end of the book, during a conversation Campbell and Julia have.
  • The end of the book has Anna being killed in a car accident, Campbell steps in and Anna's usable organs are harvested for reuse including the vital kidney for Kate who goes into remission, Campbell and Julia end up marrying.

Soundtrack

Trailer :
  • Vega 4
    Vega 4
    Vega4 was a four-piece band formed in London. Johnny McDaid was the band's lead vocalist and songwriter, joined on guitar by Bruce Gainsford. Gavin Fox was the band's bassist and Bryan McLellan the drummer....

     - Life Is Beautiful

TV Spot :
  • James Blunt
    James Blunt
    James Hillier Blount , better known by his stage name James Blunt, is an English singer-songwriter and musician, and former army officer, whose debut album, Back to Bedlam and single releases, including "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover", brought him to fame in 2005...

     - Carry You Home
  • Plain White T's
    Plain White T's
    Plain White T's is an American Pop rock band from Chicago, Illinois. Formed in 1997 by high school friends Tom Higgenson and Ken Fletcher, the group had a mostly underground following in Chicago basements, clubs, and bars in its early years, and underwent numerous personnel changes.The band is best...

     - 1, 2, 3, 4
  • Tyrone Wells
    Tyrone Wells
    Tyrone Wells is a singer/songwriter in the folk-pop genre from Spokane, Washington. His songs have been featured in television shows Tyrone Wells is a singer/songwriter in the folk-pop genre from Spokane, Washington. His songs have been featured in television shows Tyrone Wells is a...

     - More

Movie:
  • Don Ho
    Don Ho
    Donald Tai Loy "Don" Ho was a Hawaiian and traditional pop musician, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:Ho, of Chinese, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Dutch, and German descent, was born in the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako, but he grew up in Kāneohe on the windward side of the island of Oahu...

     - Tiny Bubbles
  • E.G. Daily - Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries
  • Priscilla Ahn
    Priscilla Ahn
    Priscilla Ahn is an American singer-songwriter.-Early life and education:Ahn was born Priscilla Natalie Hartranft in Fort Stewart, Georgia to Kay and Harry Hartranft and spent her childhood living in the USA and South Korea. She lived in Berks County, Pennsylvania for several years and attended...

     - Find My Way Back Home
  • Jimmy Scott
    Jimmy Scott
    Jimmy Scott , aka "Little" Jimmy Scott, is an American jazz vocalist famous for his unusually high contralto voice which is due to Kallmann's syndrome, a very rare genetic condition. The condition stunted his growth at four feet eleven inches until, at age 37, he grew another 8 inches to the...

     - Heaven
  • Regina Spektor
    Regina Spektor
    Regina Ilyinichna Spektor is a Russian American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered in New York City's East Village.-Early life:...

     - Better
  • Jonah Johnson - With You
  • Greg Laswell
    Greg Laswell
    Greg Laswell is a musician, recording engineer, and producer from San Diego, California. He has released four studio albums: Good Movie in 2003, Through Toledo in 2006, and Three Flights from Alto Nido in 2008, and Take a Bow in 2010, as well as several EPs and special singles...

     - Girls Just Want To Have Fun
  • Pete Yorn
    Pete Yorn
    Peter Joseph Yorn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who first gained international recognition after his debut record, Musicforthemorningafter, was released to critical acclaim in 2001.-Early history:Yorn's father is a dentist and his mother is a former concert pianist who worked as a...

     - Don’t Wanna Cry
  • Phil X
    Phil X
    Philip Xenidis, better known as Phil X , is a Greek-born guitarist and co-founder of the Los Angeles-based turbo pop band Powder. He also has a second band, the Drills. He is best known as the guitarist who replaced Rik Emmett in the Canadian rock band Triumph, for the Edge of Excess album and tour...

    enidis - Kill Me
  • Jeff Buckley
    Jeff Buckley
    Jeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley , raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was the son of Tim Buckley, also a musician...

     - We All Fall In Love Sometimes
  • Edwina Hayes
    Edwina Hayes
    Edwina Hayes is an English singer-songwriter. She grew up in Preston, Lancashire before moving to the East Riding of Yorkshire where she gained her first musical experience playing cover versions.-Solo career:...

    - Feels Like Home
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