Review of My Sister's Keeper (2009) by Kai82 — 28 Jun 2020

This is a movie that is outside my normal interests. I read about it and thought that it had an interesting idea. I was not disappointed. The base story is about a family whose daughter has leukemia. As everything else fails their only hope is to conceive another child which can donate blood, steam cells and tissues.

Years later the kidneys fail and their younger daughter realizes that this has grave impacts for her life and doesn't want to be treated just as doner if not even as human spare part deliverer. She hires a lawyer and want the rights of self-determination.

It is a family drama with parts of a courtroom movie. It is based on the book of the same name from Jodi Picoult. I read the book a few months after watching the movie and was surprised. Both media are excellent.

The movie makes changes in a meaningful way. Normally I should condemn this but it is fitting and improves the movie because not everything can be adapted from a book to a movie. You can still read the book for more character insights, development, additional side stories and perspective.

Remark: The endings are different! The strengths are the great story and of cause the excellent actors. Everyone is believable in their roles, the character development and interactions. The story is never boring and has some good twist or surprises for you.

Each character grows or develops within the movie. It is a rare chase were the director make an adaption that is fitting and true to the sources while also making changes. I cant tell you more without spoilers but you should get the idea why I liked the movie.

Overall a welcome surprise that I would recommend even to people that don't like movies like this normally. Like I said it is outside my normal interests and I watched it, read the book and give a 10/10.