NEW LINE CINEMA Presents
A Mark Johnson/Curmudgeon/Scott L. Goldman Production
My Sister’s Keeper (2009)
DIRECTOR: Nick Cassavetes
WRITERS: Jeremy Leven and Nick Cassavetes (based on the novel by Jodi Picoult)
PRODUCERS: Mark Johnson, Chuck Pacheco, and Scott L. Goldman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Caleb Deschanel (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Alan Heim and Jim Flynn
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Jon Hutman
COSTUME DESIGNER: Shay Cunliffe
COMPOSER: Aaron Zigman
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Jason Patric, Joan Cusack, Evan Ellingson, and Sofia Vassilieva
Opening date: Friday, June 26, 2009
Running time: 109 minutes
Rating: MPAA – PG-13 for mature thematic content, some disturbing images, sensuality, language, and brief teen drinking
My Sister’s Keeper is the new film from Nick Cassavetes, the director of The Notebook. Based on the bestselling book from Jodi Picoult, this film hopes to reveal to movie audiences “surprising truths that challenge one’s perceptions of family love and loyalty and give new meaning to the definition of healing.”
The lives of Sara Fitzgerald (Cameron Diaz), her husband, Brian (Jason Patric), change forever when they learn that their two-year-old daughter, Kate, has leukemia. The parents’ only hope is to conceive another child, specifically intended to save Kate's life. For some, such genetic engineering would raise both moral and ethical questions. For the Fitzgeralds, Sara in particular, there is no choice but to do whatever it takes to keep Kate alive. And what it takes is Anna.
Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) and Anna (Abigail Breslin) share a bond closer than most sisters. Although Kate is older, she relies on her little sister, and her life depends on Anna. Throughout their young lives, the sisters endure various medical procedures and hospital stays – just another part of their close-knit family's otherwise normal life.
Sara is a loving wife and mother who left her career as an attorney to care for her daughter. Sometimes, Sara is lost inside the single-minded caregiver she has become in her efforts to save Kate. Her strong, supportive husband, Brian, is often rendered powerless and passive by his wife's strength and determination. Their only son, Jesse (Evan Ellingson), drifts, because, at times, he is all but forgotten, as Kate and Anna take center stage.
Then, one day, the 11-year-old Anna, says “No” to giving up her life so that her sister may live. She seeks medical emancipation, and hires her own lawyer, Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin), initiating a court case that divides the family and that could leave Kate's rapidly failing body in the hands of fate.
