Film Review: My Sister's Keeper

Director Nick Cassavetes pursues tears the way horror directors pursue screams. My Sister’s Keeper, which centers on a cancer-stricken child, is no exception. A master of emotional connection, Cassavetes makes us a member of the movie’s Fitzgerald family. From the outset, each person introduces us to their lives with (slightly heavy-handed) voice-overs, letting us know how the childhood cancer of Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) has ravaged their household. We are not looking at this family through a picture-glass window, but as one of them.

Based on the novel by Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper has a deceptively catchy set-up. The youngest daughter in the family, Anna (Abigail Breslin), who was conceived to donate blood and bone marrow for her sick older sister, tracks down a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to sue for medical emancipation of her body. What follows, however, isn’t about legal or ethical boundaries, but the limits of love and sacrifice.

To ramp up our emotional response, Cassavetes shoots the family members in close-up, keeping the camera at eye level. Through this intimate style, it’s easy for the audience to lock eyes with the characters and feel their sadness. Even when we see them from afar, it’s usually a point-of-view shot, so that we are entirely encapsulated in this family’s struggle with cancer. They can’t escape this everyday reality, and neither can we.

Cassavetes frequently turns to slow-motion, gauzy, heavily scored scenes of the family sharing “moments” together. When the Fitzgeralds play together during a rare outing at the beach, prompting chemo-ravaged Kate to smile gratefully from her wheelchair, you can’t help but cry. Why should this family have to suffer so much? Why should their happiness be so fleeting? But as these moments are repeated, again and again, the whole film starts to feel like a strung-together home movie. Tears, instead of punctuating key moments of the drama, happen throughout.

All of the actors turn in top-notch performances. Breslin’s Anna has just as much gumption and quiet observation as her character in Little Miss Sunshine. Cameron Diaz, as the “I’ll-do-anything-for-my-child” mother, makes us understand, if not agree with, her hard-line methods. As befits a melodrama, both the lawyer (Baldwin) and judge (Joan Cusack) on the case have personal circumstances that make the situation particularly poignant to them, but each actor reveals these vulnerabilities with subtlety and skill.

For a film about cancer and death, My Sister’s Keeper is most memorable for how it tinges its sad moments with happiness, and happy moments with sadness. When you live on the brink of death, each emotion is linked with the other. Though it pulls our heartstrings the same way a few too many times, the tearful results are unchanged.

1. stricken - seriously affected by an undesirable condition or unpleasant feeling.
The pilot landed the stricken aircraft.

2. outset - the start or beginning of something
The project was flawed from the outset.

3. heavy-handed - clumsy, insensitive, or overly forceful
Their policing was way too heavy-handed.

4. voice-over - a piece of narration in a film or broadcast, not accompanied by an image of the speaker
The budget is summarized in a voice-over at the end of the news.

5. bone marrow - a soft fatty substance in the cavities of bones, in which blood cells are produced
Bone marrow donations may save many lives of people suffering from leukemia.

6. to ramp (something) up - increase the level or amount of (something) sharply
The company has moved into new quarters in order to ramp up production.

7. to encapsulate - enclose (something) in or as if in a capsule
The company would encapsulate the asbestos waste in concrete pellets.

8. gauzy - resembling gauze; thin and translucent
Helen wore a gauzy dress that she had bought in France.

9. ravaged - severely damaged; devastated; disfigured by age or illness
He hopes to visit his ravaged homeland.
It was too hard for the doctor’s child to see the ravaged faces of the elderly cancer victims.

10. fleeting - lasting for a very short time
For a fleeting moment I saw the face of a boy.

11. top-notch - of the highest quality; excellent
They stopped at a top-notch hotel.

12. gumption - shrewd or spirited initiative and resourcefulness
The president would hire almost any young man who had the gumption to ask for a job.

13. hard-line - uncompromising; strict
His hard-line methods were the only way to make the whole factory work properly.

14. poignant - evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret
The new lines appearing on her beautiful face were a poignant reminder of the passing of time

15. to tinge - colour slightly
A mass of white blossom tinged with pink was the only image he could remember of his first trip to Japan.

1. The pilot landed the _________ aircraft.

2. The project was flawed from the_________.

3. Their policing was way too______________.

4. The budget is summarized in a ____________ at the end of the news.

5. _______ _________ donations may save many lives of people suffering from leukemia.

6. The company has moved into new quarters in order to ______ ____ production.

7. The company would ____________the asbestos waste in concrete pellets.

8. Helen wore a gauzy dress that she had bought in France.

9. He hopes to visit his _________ homeland.

It was too hard for the doctor’s child to see the _________ faces of the elderly cancer victims.

10. For a _________ moment I saw the face of a boy.

11. They stopped at a _____________hotel.

12. The president would hire almost any young man who had the ___________to ask for a job.

13. His ______________ methods were the only way to make the whole factory work properly.

14. The new lines appearing on her beautiful face were a ___________ reminder of the passing of time.

15. A mass of white blossom __________ with pink was the only image he could remember of his first trip to Japan.

1. The pilot landed the _________ aircraft.

2. The project was flawed from the_________.

3. Their policing was way too______________.

4. The budget is summarized in a ____________ at the end of the news.

5. _______ _________ donations may save many lives of people suffering from leukemia.

6. The company has moved into new quarters in order to ______ ____ production.

7. The company would ____________the asbestos waste in concrete pellets.

8. Helen wore a gauzy dress that she had bought in France.

9. He hopes to visit his _________ homeland.

It was too hard for the doctor’s child to see the _________ faces of the elderly cancer victims.

10. For a _________ moment I saw the face of a boy.

11. They stopped at a _____________hotel.

12. The president would hire almost any young man who had the ___________to ask for a job.

13. His ______________ methods were the only way to make the whole factory work properly.

14. The new lines appearing on her beautiful face were a ___________ reminder of the passing of time.

15. A mass of white blossom __________ with pink was the only image he could remember of his first trip to Japan.

KNOCKING ON THE HEAVEN’S DOOR

To embark on – begin

Jubilant – expressing great happiness

Spree – a spell or a sustained period of a continued event (shopping spree)

Rampage – a period of violent or uncontrolled behavior involving large numbers of people

Scanty – little, liking something

Clad – closed (to be scantily clad – to wear something next to nothing)

Screenwriter – a person who writes screenplays

Spoof – a humorous imitation of something

Lam – to escape/to flee

Imminent – about to happen

Goon – a bully or a thug

Infatuation – a sense of liking someone

(Soft) Underbelly – Achill’s

Hard-boiled – tough and realistic

Cache

NEVER LET ME GO

Sci-fi - science fiction

Sinister – giving the impression that something bad

In store – coming in the future or going to happen

To entrench – to establish someone on a position very

To embed – to implant an idea or feeling

Tatty – poor condition

Vertigo – feeling unsteady

Shrewd – witty, clever, having or showing powers of judgment

Staved off

Muted -

Submission – the reaction of accepting of superior force

Composed – having one’s feelings under control

Hardback – a book bound in stiff covers

Pinged – suffering from the lack of money

Contrived – arranged in an artificial way

Home assignment: review without a handout, create a base of reviews (review + word list + exercise), compile a list of words and expressions the can be used in other reviews.

Yearning – wishing something very strongly (= to long for)
Repentant – feeling sorry for something you’ve done
Uneven – not equal
Lurch – to act in a way that is uncontrolled and not regular
To stick out – to be easily noticed

THE GODFATHER (CHAPTER !)

Affront – a remark intended to insult
Throwaway – made to be destroyed after use
Precision – equality of being exact
Crooked – not forming a straight line, having many bends, dishonest, corrupted
Double-cross – to deceive someone, to betray someone
Crucial – extremely important or necessary
Mogul – a person who is very rich and powerful
To angle – to aim, turn position of something in a direction
Wheeze – to make a high rough noise when breathing because of some breathing problems
To brush aside – to refuse to consider something seriously because you feel it’s not important

THE INTOUCHABLES

Meticulous – showing great attention to detail
Robust – strong, healthy and unlikely to fail
Veracity – accuracy
Diverge – to follow a different direction
Giddiness – sensation of dizziness
Raunchy – rude or offensive
Quadriplegic – unable to move
Odd ball -
Schemer -
Blare – to make un unpleasant noise
Stodgy – boring
Muddling – self-pitying, sentimental
Clutter – cover something
Subdued – quite and depressive
Multiplex – a large movie theater building

Learn 7 film reviews and talk about these films using the word list from each
Compile a list of words and expressions that can be used in our own review

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 830