Review in a Hurry: An uneven disease-of-the-week pic elevated by an A-list cast, with Abigail Breslin as a tween seeking medical emancipation after her body's repeatedly used to treat her cancer-stricken sister. This could've been a three-hankie weepy, but the frustratingly awkward plotting reduces the Kleenex count to one.
The Bigger Picture: Don't be misled by the happy smiles and floating bubbles on the movie poster—this is a Debbie Downer of a melodrama that practically pokes you in the eye to extract tears. And at times, the emotional assault works.
Based on Jodi Picoult's bestseller (but deviating from the book's ending), the story centers on the Fitzgerald family, shattered by the news that young daughter Kate has leukemia. Sara (Cameron Diaz) and her husband, Brian (Jason Patric), conceive another child, Anna—a "designer baby"—to serve as a donor for Kate's various medical procedures.
At age 11, Anna (Breslin) hires an attorney (Alec Baldwin) and sues for the right to make her own decisions, including denying Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) a kidney, though the girl's life depends on the transplant. Unfortunately, the film only touches on the familial fallout from Anna's lawsuit—and the ethical issues inherent in "engineering" children.
Keeper overlays unnecessary voice-overs by multiple characters, a device that only exacerbates the muddled narrative focus, and clumsily interjects countless flashbacks, often with cringe-inducing lines: "I looked at my daughter and wondered how it got from there to here." And...cue the happier-times scene.
But for every awkward segue and every gratuitous montage set to a brooding pop song, there's a genuinely poignant sequence, such as the romance subplot between Kate and fellow cancer patient Taylor (Thomas Dekker).
Breslin and Vassilieva give powerful performances, outshining their adult costars. Diaz, though effective in quieter moments, tends to play her big dramatic scenes at the same shrill level; handsome, stoic Patric is solid but underused; and Baldwin predictably taps that oily well of arrogant charm.
Keeper will be a keeper for Lifetime and Hallmark fans.
The 180—a Second Opinion: Kudos to Joan Cusack, a sublime comedian, who gets to show off serious drama chops in her nuanced turn as Judge De Salvo.
Catch the latest flicks in our Totally New Releases gallery!