Queen Biyachessa

Director: Nick Cassavetes
Producer: Stephen Furst
Writtern By:
-  Novel: Jodi Picoult
-  Film: Jeremy Leven

Cast:

Kate Fitzgerald – Sofia Vassilieva
Anna Fitzgerald – Abigail Breslin
Jesse Fitzgerald – Evan Ellingson
Sara Fitzgerald – Cameron Diaz
Brian Fitzgerald – Jason Patric
Campbell Alexander – Alec Baldwin
Taylor Ambrose – Thomas Dekker
Judge De Salvo – Joan Cusack

*with spoilers*

The story of Anna Fitzgerald is actually a very, very complicated story. In the novel, so much happened and there must be pages when all you wanna do is cry for Anna and be strong for her and sometimes hit her for being so mean, wondering how it would feel to only be the second in every decision.

The movie and the novel are both different in their own way – not just because of the ending, but because they both have different essences.

My Sister’s Keeper is a movie about 11 year old Anna who files for a lawsuit against her parents for medical emancipation. Anna Fitzgerald is a designer baby, made by parents Brian and Sara Fitzgerald as the perfect match to their ailing first born, Kate Fitzgerald who as a child was diagnosed with AML or a type of leukemia. Anna, grew up as a donor, giving Kate marrows, leukocytes, granulocytes and whatever Kate needed, starting as a newborn.

Anna, tired of all the prodding and poking and hospitalization she has undergone at such a young age, sells her most precious jewelry to pay Campbell Alexander, a commercialized lawyer, to sue her parents and be emancipated medically.

The painful movie (in the emotional sense, not the quality sense), is about what the family had to go through, the parents during the time they discovered Kate’s illness, their decision to create a designer baby to match that of Kate’s, the parents’ not being able to pay attention to their young boy who was suffering from dyslexia and because of this grew to be troubled and problematic and the choices and decisions each of them had to make for the situation.

The movie runs on in both Kate and Anna’s view. Kate’s view, apologetic about how she wasn’t able to take care of her younger siblings like she was supposed to, how she got to meet APL patient Taylor Ambrose and got to experience love, dating, prom and sex despite her young age and her limiting days. We see through how inspiration of love brought Kate up and down when Taylor died. We see the hardships of being diagnosed with leukemia and having to suffer each day just to live one more.

Each scene makes us tear up as Sara fights for her daughter’s life, refusing to give up by all means. We see Brian, the ever-understanding father who cannot choose between his dying daughter and his other daughter. Jesse, the unnoticed, who would come home to a family that never even noticed he wasn’t home yet. Kate, suffering from such an illness at such a young age, dealing with teenage issues like insecurity, love, incapability and her will to resort to what was inevitable. And we finally realize what was Campbell’s reason for taking up a job where he wasn’t paid enough, but because he knew the feeling and understood Anna in a different way.

Was Anna really made to be a donor? Is that her only purpose in life? Maybe. Anna suffers through her purpose in life – on whether she must save her sister or she fight for her life as well.

The difference between the movie and the novel is not just about the ending.

In the novel Anna dies, giving way for Campbell to allow her body parts to be transferred to Kate, thus making Kate live on. The novel gives an essence that one of them really had to go, and that it had to be Anna, who served her purpose in life – to save her sister. It may not be a happy ending, but it’s a solemn ending. A unique appreciation to the meaning of sisterhood, love, the inevitable and fate.

On the other hand, in the movie, Kate dies after all, indicating a much happier ending version. That in the movie, the essence is in the fact that Anna’s purpose in life wasn’t just to save Kate and she wasn’t able to. A happier ending, because everyone was ready for Kate’s death, even Kate was ready and tired and just wanted to rest.

This must have been the reason why the producers saw the ending more appropriate – because it was more humane. Now don’t get me wrong, Jodi Piccoult’s book is a hundred times better than the movie and a thousand times more meaningful (and tear-jerker). I guess that’s what made her book so good – all the sacrifices made, the unique ending and the realizations at the end of the book makes one really, really good book with many lessons in family, love and life.

7 Reasons to Watch the Movie

7. It’s Unique

You can’t find a movie with the same theme. This is why Jodi Piccoult’s book was made into a movie. No one has ever thought of going through the same situation and why in the world would they? Can you believe having to choose between your sister and yourself? Or your two daughters?

6. Thomas Dekker

So I have a new discovery. Despite the fact that he plays a cancer patient and looks really awkward and sick with his baldness and paleness, he exudes a certain charm as a boy and as an actor. Although, you can’t really see the pretty boy in him with all his “sick” make up, you can’t help but fall for his cute ill self in the movie.

5. Evan Ellingson

Okay, so maybe Jesse wasn’t given as much attention in the movie as he was in the book. He also seemed a little too young to be the Jesse in the book. But anyways, it’s always nice to see Kyle Harmon out of CSI Miami.

4. Sofia Vassilieva

Ah. What can I say about Sofia. Applaud, applaud, applaud. I applaud her for the real baldness, I applaud her for portraying the tired, ill teenager. I applaud her for making me cry at the same time scream when she started puking blood. I applaud her for playing a leukemic patient so realistically that I don’t ever want to experience that. And will surely inspire many people to understand and help the people who experience the same situation.

3. Cameron Diaz

I love Cameron Diaz. I’ve seen her in Charlie’s Angels and despite the fact that I thought she was wrong for the part, I was wrong. Gorgeous, spunky, fun and perky Cameron Diaz transformed herself into the loving mother who was torn between losing a child and being a mother. I thought she was wrong for the role and I didn’t think she could handle it. Instead, she proved me wrong. She was good. She portrayed the mother who wouldn’t give up on her child, the mother who loved too much to let go, the mother who’d do anything for her children.

2. Abigail Breslin

The role Abigail Breslin played was Anna. I didn’t like her for Anna when I first heard. I wanted Dakota Fanning as Anna and I still think Dakota could have played Anna better. Still, as the 11 year old girl, too young to even decide for herself – had to split her family up – either to save her sister and endanger herself, or to save herself and help her sister and split her family. It was a choice she didn’t have to make and didn’t have to go through, but Breslin did well. She deserves all the awards this movie is going to make.

1. The Essence

This movie holds more than a night in the cinemas. It’s a lifetime movie where you wonder the same thing: what is your purpose in life? Were you just brought into the world to save or replace someone else? Are the choices you make for you or your family? What would you do in the same situation? This movie shows how these people fight for their family, their lives and how they accept the consequences of the situation. It shows the eternal and unconditional love of the parents for their children, a sister to a sister, a sister to a brother.

Let’s also not forget Brian, Campbell, Judge and Judge DeSalvo with whom the movie cannot survive without.

Best Lines in the Movie

“So you stand up for Kate?”
“I do!”
“But the real question is, who stands up for Anna?” – Campbell Alexander

———–

“You almost had me believing that you care about Anna,”
“Funny. I was about to say the same thing to you,” – Campbell Alexander

———–

“And you can look at me and say how awful I am for doing that to my child. But you know what, it is awful. But it is not as awful as putting your child in the ground,” – Sara Fitzgerald