MY.SISTERS.KEEPER.



__** My Sister’s Keeper **__ //(book by Jodi Picoult)// (//directed by Nick Cassavetes//) //(project by Amy McLellan)//

My Sister's Keeper is about the Fitzgerald family: Anna ( //Abigail Breslin// ), Kate ( //Sofia Vassilieva// ), Sara ( //Cameron Diaz// ), Brian ( //Jason Patric// ) and Jesse ( //Evan Ellingson// ). When Kate was only a few years old she was diagnosed with with acute promyelocytic leukemia.The doctors told Sara and Brian that Kate would regularly need bone marrow, lymphocytes, granulocytes and much more from a close matched donor. Jesse was immediately tested, along with both parents, but none could be used. Sara and Brian made the hard decision to have a new baby carefully engineered in a test tube so it would be a perfect match for all of Kate's many needs. After years of giving parts of herself to Kate without being asked or thanked, Anna got frustrated when Kate's kidneys started to fail, and she was expected to donate one of her own. She hired Campbell Alexander ( //Alec Baldwin// ) to sue her parents for the rights to her own body.After a long, stressful trial that tested the family's loyalty to each other, the judge ruled in Anna's favor and granted Campbell medical power of attorney. On their (Anna and Campbell) way to Anna's house after the trial they were in a car accident. Anna's head smacked against the window, and doctors later informed Sara and Brian that she would never recover, but they had a chance to go through with the kidney donation. They did, and the transplant was successful. Over eight years later, Kate was still in remission (<-- book version). Even though every book has to be altered when being turned into a movie, this one was too twisted around. The characters, even Anna, do not have the same personalities portrayed in the book. In the book, Jesse was said to be withdrawn and a drunken mess who never really hung out with the family and always got into trouble. In the movie, he was always there, sitting by Kate or talking to Anna. Sara was too whiney in the movie. She was described as more levelheaded and sturdy but in the movie she was always panicking. The moods in certain situations were always changing. When Anna was supposed to be in a bad mood, she was happy and instead Kate was sad. When Anna went to Campbell to hire him, he was open and willing to help her in the movie, but in the book Anna was supposed to have to beg and convince him to take her case. Many of the smaller, less important scenes were cut, which was expected. Some of the flashbacks from the bookwere included in the movie, but not all of them. The ones they did put in the movie were important to the story. A few more important ones were left out, but all the information was still given in other ways. Not much was switched around because a lot of the story takes place in court and Kate being sick, and things like that cannot be switched around without confusing the audience. Also the narration stays the same. Each person spoke his or her point of view, like in the books. Therefor there was no specific narrator; it switched around. A lot of these changes were made throughout the movie, and these were all expected. What was not at all suspected was the surprise ending. In the book, Anna and Campbell were in a car accident driving back from court. Anna died and was able to donate her kidney to Kate and save her life. Instead, in the movie, Kate dies and Anna lives. None of the last ten minutes of the movie were included in the book. Comparing the movie to the book and comparing the movie to other movies are two very different things. The movie version of //My Sister’s Keeper// compared to other movies was great. The characters were intriguing and the story line exciting. Unfortunately the movie compared to the book did not have such a great review. All the little changes in cutting and re-sequencing helped the movie show what was going on (because it skipped around quite a bit in the book). The changes in characteristics among the Fitzgerald family did not change the story at all, but it was irritating to see them acting opposite of what they were supposed to (since I knew their "original" personalities and I was supposed to be looking and analyzing these things). The little things were executed well. The bigger things, like the ending was not. With Kate dying in the end, there was no closure to the story, only disappointment. The //My Sister’s Keeper// movie seemed to be more based on the book, not the same story. A different name for the movie could have been pulled off because even though all the characters had the same names, they acted differently and the ending was completely opposite. It ruined this movie (for me at least). This drastic change did not work well with the rest of the story.

I would definitely recommend the book version to everyone. Even though the book is a long 423 pages and even if the reader is normally to lazy to read, it is worth it. The movie can only show the audience the bare minimum in order to fit everything important in such a short amount of time (about an hour and a half). In the book, Jodi Picoult goes into so much detail, and the reader can really get a feeling for each of the characters. She makes sure you can picture all the situations while reading. In the movie there is not enough time to dig into each of their pasts. There are flashbacks in the book which help explain a certain person's characteristics. These are not shown in the movie. Fights, little details, conversations...all these things are cut out. If someone watched the movie without reading the book first, they would have no trouble understanding what was going on, but they also would have no idea how much they were missing. I personally enjoy the little things and I always make sure to read the book before watching the movie if at all possible.

Bottom line: I love the book and I dislike the movie in comparison.

//My Sister's Keeper// movie trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP4NxUFgFrs ...or watch the whole movie...http://www.putlocker.com/file/232083YKERR4008C#