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Sister's Keeper a 'Shameless Weepy'

Melodrama about teen cancer patient carries out sustained assault on tear ducts

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 26, 2009 8:53 AM CDT

(Newser) – Cancer melodrama My Sister's Keeper makes every effort possible to tug at the heartstrings, say critics, leaving some people touched and others feeling like they've been run through an industrial tear-extraction machine.

AO Scott, New York Times: Keeper "takes on a very tough subject," and has "two pretty tough characters played by strong young actresses—but ultimately it is too soft, too easy, and it dissolves like a tear-soaked tissue."

Kimberley Jones, Austin Chronicle: Director John Cassavetes, ably assisted by a cast that includes Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin, "is not a man to leave a spot of sap untapped, and in My Sister's Keeper, he pulls out a very big drill indeed."
Christy Lemire: Associated Press: The adaptation of Jodi Picoult's novel is a "shameless weepy, one of the most manipulative and fundamental of genres, but it also raises some surprisingly difficult and thought-provoking ethical questions."

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Cameron Diaz, left, and Sofia Vassilieva are shown in a scene from "My Sister's Keeper." (AP Photo/Warner Bros., Sidney Baldwin)

Sofia Vassilieva, left, and Abigail Breslin are shown in a scene from "My Sister's Keeper." (AP Photo/Warner Bros., Sidney Baldwin)

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Trailer for "My Sister's Keeper." (YouTube)

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Don't avoid My Sister's Keeper because it's a film about a serious issue. Avoid it because it approaches that issue like a very special episode of Grey's Anatomy, complete with whining pop songs. - Stephen Whitty, Star-Ledger

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Sister's Keeper a 'Shameless Weepy'