Review of My Sister's Keeper (2009) by Rob S — 25 Jul 2015

Once again, I had to watch this film for a summer course, and I probably never would have pursued watching this movie it that weren't the case. I am going to try to be unbiased since this movie has a completely different output than the novel (which I also had to read for the class).

I'll just say it: this movie is pretty boring. The film attempts to reveal the points of view of the core characters, but it shouldn't have even attempted to do this because it seemed like every character except for Anna only got one or two moments to narrate for themselves.

This film was not very interesting visually. In fact, when it tried to do interesting things with the camera, it became noticeable. I swear there must have been 3 or 4 moments with the same "dramatic" shot which tracked into a close-up on Anna quickly and then held its place in a sort of suspense before Anna spoke. Other than this, just a bunch of still shots in this movie and not much camera movement. I really enjoy at least a little camera movement in movies I watch. I only appreciate films filled with still shots if the movie is dramatic and interesting enough to survive without relying on the art of the camera.

The one aspect I really liked about the film is that Anna was portrayed to be a stronger individual, not nearly as annoying and indecisive as in the novel. But honestly, just skip this movie, you can spend your time in better ways.