My Sister's Keeper
New Line Cinema | Release Date: June 26, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
18
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie never says so, but it's a practical parable about the debate between pro-choice and pro-life. If you're pro-life, you would require Anna to donate her kidney, although there is a chance she could die, and her sister doesn't have a good prognosis. If you're pro-choice, you would support Anna's lawsuit. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The strength of the acting and the modulation of the screenplay transforms what could have been a run-of-the-mill Lifetime disease-of-the-week movie into something more insightful and intelligent. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
For all its awkward structure, the film is heartfelt and deeply affecting. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
A high-class weepie for adults who disdain the lower forms of four-hankiedom. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
If you're going to make a weepy, there's no reason you can't make it with intelligence and insight as the makers of My Sister's Keeper have done. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianStan Hall
The interesting ethical and moral issues of the situation are hashed out in courtroom scenes (with Joan Cusack as the judge!) that devolve into hysteria in jarring contrast to a sensitively handled death scene that soon follows. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Diaz gets her own voice-over monologue, as does Patric - the different points of view functioning like stanza refrains, born in shared familial anguish. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
There's no point mincing words: My Sister's Keeper is a difficult film to watch. That's not to say it isn't well-assembled, well-cast or well-acted. Read full review
60
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Within this structurally baggy weepie, at least two perfectly good movies fight to break free, one a provocative legal thriller, the other a melodrama. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Their message (Cassavetes and screenwriter Jeremy Leven) in My Sister's Keeper? Cancer sucks, but there's always the balm of beach scenes and an emo soundtrack. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin Chang
Unsubtle, uneven and undeniably effective, this take-no-prisoners cancer weepie poses a fascinating moral quandary. Read full review
50
Village VoiceNick Pinkerton
You don't usually see this unblinking attention to the progress of physical decay in a PG-13 wide-release movie, and to the degree that it represents a real aspect of human experience generally curtained out of sight, it is, in the language of movie people, a brave decision. But makeup department realism alone can't redeem the dramatic fallacies surrounding it. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Anyone who watched (and probably wept his or her way through) the swoony 2004 melodrama "The Notebook" knows Cassavetes 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. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The harder this assault weapon went at my tear ducts, the more duct tape I wrapped around them as a defensive measure. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
You might call My Sister's Keeper manipulative, and you would not be inaccurate. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A pall of disaster, in fact, hangs over everyone in this shapeless, hankie-wringing adaptation of the best-selling Jodi Picoult novel. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
My Sister’s Keeper takes on a very tough subject -- and has, in Anna and Kate, 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. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva are terrific. But the performances by the older actors are largely forgettable. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
A bit like a real-world horror film with "heart," right down to the trick ending. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)James Adams
Finally, it's more a cautionary tale about the dangers of what can happen when a bad movie happens to a popular novelist than a keeper for the ages. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
A lighter hand would have enhanced some very good performances. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineJason Buchanan
Should be shown in theaters that offer seats with tissue dispensers built right into the arm rests. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Surrounding and ultimately subsuming this ethical struggle is a fair amount of pediatric-cancer horror and mush, though Cassavetes is frequently bailed out by his cast (Diaz is admirably unpleasant as the controlling mother, and Joan Cusack is unusually tough and restrained as the presiding judge). Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
There is always a fine line between moving and manipulation in telling heartbreaking stories, and it is here that Cassavetes largely fails us. Where restraint might have raised up My Sister's Keeper, a heavy hand has brought it down. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
It would take a heart of stone not to be affected by My Sister’s Keeper, but the film’s unceasing manipulation has a Medusa effect on the organ. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Patric and Baldwin react to all the morbidity with restraint, and Vassilieva keeps her bald head high. But they won't be able to help this barefaced vulgarity earn any terms of endearment. Read full review
38
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The infuriating cop–out ending reduces the premise to mush. I wanted to scream. Here goes: Arghh! Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Has a gutsy premise, but no guts. Read full review
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