My Sister's Keeper

Chicago Sun-Times Roger 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.

ReelViews James 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.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

For all its awkward structure, the film is heartfelt and deeply affecting.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

A high-class weepie for adults who disdain the lower forms of four-hankiedom.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk 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.

Portland Oregonian Stan 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.

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike 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.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven 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.

Washington Post Ann 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.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa 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.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A bit like a real-world horror film with "heart," right down to the trick ending.

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.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A lighter hand would have enhanced some very good performances.

TV Guide Jason Buchanan

Should be shown in theaters that offer seats with tissue dispensers built right into the arm rests.

The New York Times A.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.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva are terrific. But the performances by the older actors are largely forgettable.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The harder this assault weapon went at my tear ducts, the more duct tape I wrapped around them as a defensive measure.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

You might call My Sister's Keeper manipulative, and you would not be inaccurate.

Variety Justin Chang

Unsubtle, uneven and undeniably effective, this take-no-prisoners cancer weepie poses a fascinating moral quandary.

Village Voice Nick 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.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley 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.

Chicago Reader J.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).

Los Angeles Times Betsy 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.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

A pall of disaster, in fact, hangs over everyone in this shapeless, hankie-wringing adaptation of the best-selling Jodi Picoult novel.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott 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.

New York Daily News Joe 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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The infuriating cop–out ending reduces the premise to mush. I wanted to scream. Here goes: Arghh!

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Has a gutsy premise, but no guts.