My Sister's Keeper Review

Okay, so yesterday I saw My Sister's Keeper. I loved the book when I read it, I thought it was amazing and heartbreaking. For those of you who don't know, My Sister's Keeper is a book about thirteen year old Andromeda 'Anna' Fitzgerald, a designer baby born to save her sister Kate's life. Kate was diagnosed with leukaemia when she was two. When Kate is sixteen, she goes into renal failure and Anna is expected to donate a kidney to her. Instead, Anna sues her parents for the rights to her own body. She hires Campbell Alexander to represent her.
The movie was very different. It had its good points: it was well cast [Sofia Vassilieva was astounding as Kate, and I was pleasantly surprised by Cameron Diaz] and spared no gory details about cancer. However, I had some gripes:

Gripe one: The constant music in the background. It seemed that whenever somebody wasn't talking, there was annoying, soppy music playing in the background
Gripe two: The Aunt Kelly character. She lived in the house with them yet added absolutley nothing to the story.
Gripe three: The constant time skips were very annoying. They did appear in the book but it was always obvious that it was not in the present day. In the film something would be happening and then suddenly something completely different was happening. It was very confusing.

But my biggest gripe was the change of the protagonist. In the novel, the story is about Anna and her court case. Kate's illness is vital for this plot, but it's not the main focus. The novel was a story of a young girl trying to get her parents to stop treating her like an organ bank.
The film, however, was almost completely focused on Kate. This annoyed me because the idea is that Anna is finally getting to have her own story. In the movie, Anna's court case was a side line. It was mainly a film about a young girl dying of cancer. Which is okay, if you like that kind of thing.
I, however, wanted to see Anna's story. There are plenty of movies about people dying of cancer [I recommend Camino, a heartbreaking Spanish film about a twelve year old with a spinal tumor; and Life As A House, a film about a dying man rekindling his relationship with his troubled son.]
There are no movies [as far as I know, if you know of any please tell me] of how designer babies or saviour siblings feel.

Overall, it was an okay movie in general. I am glad I saw it. Had I not read the book, I probably would have liked it more.
I believe it's worth it to both read the book and see the film

.Xx Ruby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdZZLdjBfCI < trailer