It's Just My Opinion

This has been bugging me for a few months, and I've finally found time to write it all down. This summer I read the book My Sister's Keeper knowing that the movie was coming out. I always want to read the book first. The book was okay, but the movie was a total disappointment.


First of all - casting...

Alec Baldwin as the attorney Campbell Alexander is the only part that was cast appropriately. Arrogant and competent. Baldwin nailed that.

I guess the casting on the father was okay, too. Jason Patric played Brian Fitzgerald, but the dad had a more substantial role in the book, and showed up very little, comparatively speaking, in the movie.

Cameron Diaz as the mom,Sara Fitzgerald? Yes, if she'd been a supermodel. Seriously? Don't get me wrong. I like Diaz okay, in comedic roles mostly. She didn't pack the punch this character needed. I find it difficult to believe she won an ALMA Award for this role.

Abigail Breslin as the daughter Anna Fitzgerald who takes her parents to court? Uh uh. Too young. Not the right personality. Totally unconvincing.

The sick daughter KateFitgerald played by Sofia Vassilieva? No. She wasn't sympathetic and never really looked ill, even when she was "bald."

Bad boy brother Jesse? No. Played by cutie Evan Ellingson, he was Mr. Clean-cut All-American Kid-next-door type in the movie. In the book, he was a pot-smoking headbanger who purposely set fires (and his dad was a fireman). He didn't even live in the family home in the book, but in an apartment over the garage.

More about the movie: Too many montages. Music with no dialogue. Storyline changes. The child characters were all two years younger - which didn't work with the storyline. And there were extra sexual innuendos between Kate and her first love interest in the movie that were not part of the book, and they didn't add anything.

The Guardian ad Litem wasn't even a character in the movie, and there was a huge story about her shared past with the attorney representing the girl in the book. They had a history. None of that was explored because she wasn't even in the movie. And, in reality, the attorney cannot be appointed Guardian ad Litem. So that made no sense.

The characters in the movie were static. They didn't grow and change, and they were not developed enough to make the viewer care about them or develop any type of emotional attachment to them.

Then, there is the ending. The movie ends totally different, opposite of the book. I don't want to give away too much, though.

If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, I suggest you read the book. It is worth it. The movie is a superficial skimming of the book. If you're going to do both, read the book before you see the movie. Again, my suggestion is to skip the movie altogether. Lots of songs where the audience is just watching the characters or looking at Kate's pictures with no action, no diaglogue, and no character development. So good to finally get this off my chest!