Stars:
** 1/2
Rating: PG-13 for language,
disturbing images and mature themes
Run
Time: 1
hour, 46 minutes
Cameron
Diaz sheds her ditzy girl image to get serious about life and death in this adaption
of Jodi Picoult’s best-selling novel.
Diaz is
Sara Fitzgerald, the take-no-prisoners mom of a tenacious teen who’s slowly dying
of leukemia. But the focus isn’t on mom nor is it always on the patient herself
(Sofia Vassilieva as Kate), an ethereal spirit whose showdown with death has
grown her wise beyond her years.
The moral
crux is Kate’s younger sister Anna (the ubiquitous Abigail Breslin), a
petri-engineered “perfect match” who tires of her role as genetic savior to her
big sis and files to become medically emancipated from her desperate parents in
order to stop them from donating her kidney.
A sticky
ethical dilemma that’s both timely and thought-provoking, though director Nick
Cassavetes threatens to dilute its powerful message with conventional miscues –
clumsy transitions, weepy background tunes, disjointed flashbacks and the
maximum manipulation allowable for a three-hanky weeper.
While Anna
battles for the rights to her own body with the help of ambulance chasing
attorney cum TV huckster Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin) Diaz fights the good
fight for Kate, never saying die (literally) while insisting on procedure after
procedure that will ultimately save her daughter’s life. All at the expense of Anna,
her dyslexic brother and resilient firefighting hubby Brian (Jason Patric).
It’s hard
to turn a hard heart towards a youngster dying of cancer and there are sweet moments
that play it right – in particular Kate’s first kiss with dreamy fellow patient
Taylor Ambrose (Thomas Dekker). Structure is awkward to a fault, never settling
on a comfortable thematic pattern.
Diaz is the
real deal though she tries too hard to show it. Breslin is the consummate pro –
lending poignant credibility to a persistent 11-year old who refuses to be used
for spare parts -- and Joan Cusack is flat-out excellent as a conflicted judge
who feels for both sides. Vassilieva has the hardest row to hoe as the emotional
nucleus of a family at climatic crossroads and she works it.
Monotonous
voice-overs attempt to explain and maintain a linear storyline but fails. By
turns shameless and provocative, “Keeper” is a mawkish yet worthy enough
addition to the summer line-up.