Critic Reviews
My Sister's Keeper (2009) Rank 2 Reviews
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based on (100) reviews
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This is London (Derek Malcolm)
The Hollywood Reporter at Cannes
If you're going to make a weepy, there's no reason you can't make it with intelligence and insight as the makers of "My Sister's Keeper" have done. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at The Hollywood Reporter at Cannes
Redblog
We live, as someone once noted, in a cynical world. (It was either Socrates or Jerry Maguire; I'm always confusing the two. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Redblog
NYC Movie Guru
A mostly contrived and uneven drama that lacks nuances and fails to pack an emotional punch, but at least it's mildly engaging thanks to warm, heartfelt performances and exquisite cinematography. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at NYC Movie Guru
The Star Ledger
In its favor, it is based on a best-seller. It also has Cameron Diaz lending some star power in a rare dramatic role. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at The Star Ledger
Reeling Reviews
"My Sister's Keeper" is a blatant 10 hanky weeper masquerading as something deeper, but it does some things well in spite of itself. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Reeling Reviews
Entertainment Weekly
Judging from the snuffling heard around me and the spontaneous production of my own cheap tears, My Sister's Keeper does exactly what it's supposed to do: The sinus-clearing movie makes us feel luxuriously sad that, despite the love of attractive families ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Entertainment Weekly
New York Observer
A less talented director than the sensitive, polished and mature master craftsman Nick Cassavetes might fail to lift My Sister's Keeper above the level of suicidal depression. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at New York Observer
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema (Mark Pfeiffer)
My Sister's Keeper might have earned its weepy moments if it had played fair with its central dilemma rather than putting forward a false choice. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema (Mark Pfeiffer)
Atlantic City Weekly (Lori Hoffman)
Boston Globe (Ty Burr)
This book hasn’t been adapted, it’s been taken outside and shot. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Boston Globe (Ty Burr)
Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey)
Where restraint might have raised up My Sister's Keeper, a heavy hand has brought it down. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey)
Austin Chronicle (--)
Anyone who watched (and probably wept his or her way through) the swoony 2004 melodrama The Notebook knows Cassavetes is not a man to leave a spot of sap untapped, and in My Sister's Keeper, he pulls out a very big drill indeed. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Austin Chronicle (--)
Miami Herald
Cruelly inspired, perhaps, by the weeping induced by the ravages of dementia he portrayed in his adaptation of Nicholas Spark's novel The Notebook, director Nick Cassavetes apparently set out to make another tear-jerker with a subject even more traumatic. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Miami Herald
Brian Orndorf
Vassilieva's portrayal of Kate is a searing communication of traditional teenaged frustration and devastating deathbed reminiscence, which Cassavetes uses often to disrupt the timeline and ventilate the conflict. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Brian Orndorf
jackiekcooper.com (Jackie K. Cooper)
The movie is a wafer thin translation of a really good book ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at jackiekcooper.com (Jackie K. Cooper)
Mountain Xpress
The film isn't unprofessionally made, though it would almost certainly be more at home on the Lifetime Channel. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Mountain Xpress
Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) (John Wirt)
A tear-fest medical drama that seems much longer than it is. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) (John Wirt)
Groucho Reviews
Undeniably manipulative, not only in its plot, but in its dramatization of it. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Groucho Reviews
Deseret News, Salt Lake City (Jeff Vice)
USA Today
My Sister's Keeper takes a compelling ethical dilemma and turns it into formulaic pap by trying relentlessly to ensure an emotional reaction with sentimental exploitation and plot contrivances. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at USA Today
New York Post
My Sister's Keeper targets tear ducts so ruthlessly, it might as well be sponsored by Kleenex. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at New York Post
Hollywood & Fine
Yet the lawsuit is not the focus of the story. The film bounces around in time, offering backstory on Kate's illness, telling the tale through interior monologues by each of the characters. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Hollywood & Fine
Film.com
The premise of the two-hankie dying-daughter melodrama My Sister's Keeper is so preposterous that taking it seriously proves a difficult task. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Film.com
Chicago Tribune
As written by Cassavetes and co-screenwriter Jeremy Leven, the mother is a monomaniacal Mother Bear, willing to do anything to save her cub. Diaz struggles to humanize her. Others transcend the suds: Vassilieva is often quite moving. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Chicago Tribune
The Globe and Mail
I'm no stranger to tears at the movies. Over the years, films as good, bad and/or ugly as Old Yeller, The Way We Were, Terms of Endearment, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Hours have given the ole ducts a good workout. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at The Globe and Mail
Baltimore Sun
It's beautifully shot and skillfully acted, but My Sister's Keeper, an earnest family-faces-cancer drama, is a bit like a real-world horror film with "heart," right down to the trick ending. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Baltimore Sun
Deseret News
Give filmmaker Nick Cassavetes some long-overdue credit. After more than 10 years of directing, he's clearly learned how to manipulate moviegoers. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Deseret News
Chicago Metromix
Feeling little for "My Sister's Keeper" doesn't mean you're insensitive to the plight of cancer patients and their families. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Chicago Metromix
Boston Globe
The domestic afflictions in "My Sister's Keeper" pile onto the Fitzgerald family with biblical fury. Sixteen-year-old Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) has battled leukemia for most of her life. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Boston Globe
Newsday
Tired of hearing her leukemic daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) whine about chemo-induced baldness, Sara Fitzgerald ( Cameron Diaz) storms off to the bathroom and soon emerges hairless. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Newsday
One Guy's Opinion
"My Sister's Keeper" is visually proficient, with Caleb Deschanel's cinematography avoiding the glossy look of an old Ross Hunter weepie. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at One Guy's Opinion
Jo Reviews
Any family stricken with an illness is at a standstill. A point that is proven in "My Sister's Keeper", an adaptation from a 2004 novel from Jodi Picoult, following the life of two sisters. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Jo Reviews
Screen It! Entertainment Reviews for Parents
Here's a quick summary of the content found in this drama that's been rated PG-13. Profanity consists of at least 1 "f" word, while other expletives and colorful phrases are also uttered. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Screen It! Entertainment Reviews for Parents
Time Out
Cassavetes has unexpectedly toned down the over-the-top series of twists from the novel's last third, though restraint is still a relative concept. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Time Out
New York Daily News
A girl doesn't want to be a donor sibling for her cancer-stricken sister. With Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin. Director: Nick Cassavetes (1:46). PG-13: Hospital drama, language. At area theaters. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at New York Daily News
Onion A.V. Club
Ushers should prepare themselves to get out the mops for My Sister's Keeper, as small rivulets of tears coalesce into a Mississippi Delta at the bottom of the theater after each showing. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Onion A.V. Club
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
filmcritic.com
Nick Cassavetes remains an interesting case study. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at filmcritic.com
Time Out (Vadim Rizov)
Diaz is a whiny irrelevance, but sharp supporting work from Alec Baldwin and Joan Cusack makes the proceedings tolerable for boyfriends. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Time Out (Vadim Rizov)
Jam! Movies (Kevin Williamson)
True, it's as contrived as the genre gets, but it nevertheless left me mourning the movie that might have been. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Jam! Movies (Kevin Williamson)
Cinema Blend
The world is depressing enough already, what with the Iranian election protests and the dismal weather in New York and the very existence of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Cinema Blend
Rolling Stone
Adapted from a bestseller by Jodi Picoult that I hope to never read, My Sister's Keeper starts with an intriguing premise. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Rolling Stone
Las Vegas Weekly
My Sister's Keeper is a perfect example of a disease-of-the-week movie done wrong. It starts with an intriguing premise: Anna Fitzgerald (Breslin) was created in a test tube as "spare parts" for her older sister, Kate (Vassilieva), who has leukemia. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Las Vegas Weekly
7M Pictures
Call me crazy or overly conservative, but I find it completely reprehensible to have another child simply to use as an organ and tissue farm for another kid. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at 7M Pictures
Combustible Celluloid
My Sister's Keeper is a perfect example of a disease-of-the-week movie done wrong. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Combustible Celluloid
Slant Magazine
Athematic sequel to his 2002 hospital hostage drama, John Q, Nick Cassavetes's My Sister's Keeper centers on a different sort of hostage situation, one in which an 11-year-old girl is incessantly pressured by her parents to donate blood, bone marrow, and ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at Slant Magazine
The New York Times
My Sister's Keeper takes on a very tough subject, but ultimately it is too soft, too easy, and it dissolves like a tear-soaked tissue. ...read the complete My Sister's Keeper movie review at The New York Times
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User Reviews
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by Tetramobile on July 17, 2009 New York, New York
My problem with this movie is that they changed it from the book. I don't know why they did it. Maybe they didn't think the audience could handle the real ending of the story, but why make a movie if you're going to change what people ...
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