quote:

Originally posted by Alc:

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Originally posted by Scout:
Diaz is getting great reviews and in a perfect world she would be a contender for Best Leading Actress nom, but Academy despise her so she won't get in. I'm sure if the role would be played by Cate Blanchett and got the same reviews as Ms. Diaz she would be a freakin' front-runner. Oh, well... double standards.

The same reviews?

True, I'm only going by the three that are posted here, but she's not getting such great reviews. Two of them had negative things to say, and the third was good only in passing. According to those reviews, she doesn't deserve a nom and that wouldn't surprise me any.

Where did they write that she doesn't deserve a nom? There was no such line. Those who review movie badly are guys, so it speaks for itself. And rarely do the reviewers write in their articles about Oscar noms i.e. Roger Ebert. Another Diaz hater here? I won't waste my time to talk with you.

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Originally posted by Scout:

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Originally posted by Alc:

quote:

Originally posted by Scout:
Diaz is getting great reviews and in a perfect world she would be a contender for Best Leading Actress nom, but Academy despise her so she won't get in. I'm sure if the role would be played by Cate Blanchett and got the same reviews as Ms. Diaz she would be a freakin' front-runner. Oh, well... double standards.

The same reviews?

True, I'm only going by the three that are posted here, but she's not getting such great reviews. Two of them had negative things to say, and the third was good only in passing. According to those reviews, she doesn't deserve a nom and that wouldn't surprise me any.

Where did they write that she doesn't deserve a nom? There was no such line. Those who review movie badly are guys, so it speaks for itself. And rarely do the reviewers write in their articles about Oscar noms i.e. Roger Ebert. Another Diaz hater here? I won't waste my time to talk with you.

GOING BY THESE REVIEWS, she doesn't deserve a nom. Better?

What I said means essentially the same thing, and I wouldn't have thought I needed to read into my First Grade Teaching Primer to explain such a painfully obvious thing, but I guess there's no underestimating people.

Why would anyone be saying the Academy despises Diaz? Didn't she get nominated before? For a woman who mostly does comedy that was a pretty big deal, no?

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Originally posted by Zembla:
Why would anyone be saying the Academy despises Diaz? Didn't she get nominated before? For a woman who mostly does comedy that was a pretty big deal, no?

No, she hasn't been nominated for an Academy Award yet. Though, she has been nominated for 4 Golden Globes. Do we know if she is lead? or supporting? I heard she was supporting.

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Originally posted by Psychadelicboy33:

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Originally posted by Zembla:
Why would anyone be saying the Academy despises Diaz? Didn't she get nominated before? For a woman who mostly does comedy that was a pretty big deal, no?

No, she hasn't been nominated for an Academy Award yet. Though, she has been nominated for 4 Golden Globes. Do we know if she is lead? or supporting? I heard she was supporting.

She's probably been in the sixth or seventh spot a few times since she got the GG/SAG combination but no Oscar twice for Being John Malkovich and then for Vanilla Sky.

I don't think the Academy necessarily hates her because she just missed out. I think that it probably had more to do with Vanilla Sky not being that well liked, and more voters preferring Catherine Keener in Being John Malkovich.

It may be tough for an actress like Diaz to get nominated, but I actually think that if she does get nominated, she'll have an easier time of winning than say an older veteran like Julie Christie or a respected thespian like the C/Kates because the standards might be lower for her like, "oh my god, I didn't know that Diaz could actually act that great." I actually do think she deserves more credit than that because she has demonstrated that she can do comedy which some of her peers cannot do, and she can do drama when not miscast like say in Gangs of New York, but when she finds the right role to finally get her nominated, which I don't think My Sister's Keeper will be, sorry, I think the Academy will finally be like, "wow, sorry we ignored you for so long and doubted your abilities. You can actually act, and more importantly you made a lot of money for us, so here's your Oscar."

Oh my fault, I thought she got a nomination for Vanilla Sky! Damn, well, she certainly deserved some notice for that role. It was her best acting in my opinion...

I thought she was dreadful in "Vanilla Sky". She's a much better comedienne than she is a dramatic actress, (I did like her in "My Best Friend's Wedding", "Being John Malkovich" and even "Charlie's Angels") so that's why I have my doubts about "My Sister's Keeper" being a nomination-worthy performance. And so far, the reviews bear this out.

I think she should at least get a nomination. I mean come on! 4 Golden Globe Nominations, 2 SAG Nominations and a BAFTA Nomination.Is she lead? or supporting? I heard that she was in supporting.

Cam's definately a better comedic actress. The only reason she came off so well in "Being John Malkovich" is because of her character's quirk. She arguable deserved an Oscar for that. But at this point I'm no longer feeling. She's become a Kate Hudson clone, except she's managed to stay skinny.

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A *1/2 review from Peter Travers in ROLLING STONE...

Adapted from a bestseller by Jodi Picoult that I hope to never read, My Sister's Keeper starts with an intriguing premise. Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric conceive a child to keep her leukemic older sister (Sofia Vassilieva) alive through transfusions and transplants. But when Anna (Abigail Breslin), 11, hires a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to sue for the right to her own body, all hell breaks loose. So does the movie. Though the actors give it a go, notably Diaz, who plays the "crazy bitch" mom with no-bull restraint, director Nick Cassavetes shifts to Notebook mode and jerks tears at every turn. Almost everyone Anna encounters has his or her own tragedy (cancer, epilepsy, a dead child). And each story is set to treacly songs (cue "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries") that make the blood curdle. The infuriating cop–out ending reduces the premise to mush. I wanted to scream. Here goes: Arghh!

quote:

Originally posted by pacinofan:
A *1/2 review from Peter Travers in ROLLING STONE...

Adapted from a bestseller by Jodi Picoult that I hope to never read, My Sister's Keeper starts with an intriguing premise. Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric conceive a child to keep her leukemic older sister (Sofia Vassilieva) alive through transfusions and transplants. But when Anna (Abigail Breslin), 11, hires a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to sue for the right to her own body, all hell breaks loose. So does the movie. Though the actors give it a go, notably Diaz, who plays the "crazy bitch" mom with no-bull restraint, director Nick Cassavetes shifts to Notebook mode and jerks tears at every turn. Almost everyone Anna encounters has his or her own tragedy (cancer, epilepsy, a dead child). And each story is set to treacly songs (cue "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries") that make the blood curdle. The infuriating cop–out ending reduces the premise to mush. I wanted to scream. Here goes: Arghh!

Even though I often do not agree with Peter Travers soft tastes I do like his casual, somewhat aggressive writing style. That being said his reliance on profanity does bother me. Yes, I posted this review but will admit I wish he would have found a somewhat more elegant way to describe Cameron Diaz's character than "crazy b*tch".

Cameron Diaz is waaayyy better at comedy than drama (I think she should have been nominated for an Oscar for There's Something About Mary). I also liked her in In Her Shoes.

However, this film looks like saccahrine, syrupy, shmaltzy poppy****. And I'm sure audiences will eat it up. Ugh.

A not so great review from EW.com:

Movie Review
My Sister's Keeper (2009)

Credits
Release Date: Jun 26, 2009; Rated: PG-13; Length: 103 Minutes; Genre: Drama; With: Abigail Breslin

By Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum is a film critic for EW

Judging from the snuffling heard around me and the spontaneous production of my own cheap tears, My Sister's Keeper does exactly what it's supposed to do: The sinus-clearing movie makes us feel luxuriously sad that, despite the love of attractive families and the best medical care, some kids get cancer.

But because we live in a post-St. Elsewhere world of plot-enhancing ethical complications, this particular luxuriously sad story, based on a best-selling novel by skilled tear-wrencher Jodi Picoult, isn't content with the simple challenges of life-threatening illness. While the sick teen girl, Kate (Medium's Sofia Vassilieva), is a beaming beacon of bald-headed grace, the spotlight belongs to her younger sister, Anna (Abigail Breslin). Anna was genetically engineered and conceived by her parents (Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric) to supply spare parts to her ailing older sibling. And now Anna wants to sue for medical emancipation because, she says, she's tired of being a human pin cushion. Alec Baldwin adapts his sitcommy 30 Rock persona only slightly to play her showboating lawyer.

Picoult's fans are treated to a fair dose of the author's page-turning stuff, including a subplot about Kate's chaste cancer-ward romance. The extra cinematic shine, meanwhile, is the specialty of director Nick Cassavetes and screenwriter Jeremy Leven, who painted and plastered over literary mush in The Notebook. Their message in My Sister's Keeper? Cancer sucks, but there's always the balm of beach scenes and an emo soundtrack. C+

I've just finished the novel, it kind of dragged along with something you didn't really care to know about and suddenly became riveting towards the last quater. And like everyone said, the end was so contrived but I happen to know that it is different in the movie version.

There's no confirmed date of release in my country, or maybe it won't be. I don't look forward to it anyway.

Regarding the characters, I think Alec Baldwin fit Campbell Alexander so perfectly. I could imagine him doing all those funny and sarcastic lines from the book. Abigail Breslin was also a good choice.

The most baity character was Sara, the mother. It was a very complicated character. You hated her and empathized with her at the same time.
Judging from the novel, the movie is nowhere near Oscar's radar except that suffering wife/mother like Sara could attract some Oscar's attention in Supporting Actress. Sadly I don't think Camaron Diaz has a chance at all even though she might give her best. But I have a hunch if Sara had been played by Oscar nominees like Laura Linney, Julianne Moore or Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine reunion), they would have had a shot, a long one though.

Here an interesting piece from The Hollywood Reporter:

Can there be something (else) about Cameron?
By Steven Zeitchik

Reinventions run riot in "My Sister's Keeper," the surprisingly effective New Line tearjerker about a family whose daughter is dying of leukemia, which we saw earlier this week at its New York premiere.

Director Nick Cassavetes goes from the crime dramas of his post-"Notebook" phase back to Weepyville. Abigail Breslin plays a conflicted, (slightly) more complex (or at least confused) pre-adolescent instead of merely a cute one.

And most significantly, Cameron Diaz, playing the tenacious mother who fights for her daughter's life even beyond when it may be reasonable to do so, moves on from the romantic comedies and one-of-the-guys testosterone comedies to Kleenex-factory territory. (Alec Baldwin, on the other hand, playing a smirking ambulance-chasing lawyer, pretty much stays where he's been for some time.)

Diaz's turn doesn't always work -- even with puffy eyes and impassioned speeches, there's something still a little slight about her presence to make us believe this is a woman blinded by her own maternal love -- but she's surrounded by enough acting talent and a strong enough script that in the right moment can still give you a jolt.

The question is: will it do the same for her career, which has felt a little boxed-in of late, and her apparent interest to start playing against type? (Diaz's name has come up for Cassavetes' environmental drama "Peaceable Kingdom.") The short answer: It could, but it will need strong reviews and strong boxoffice to offer that boost. At the very least, though, it gives her agents something to work with.

Interestingly, the actress herself doesn't see "Keeper" as a reinvention -- she told us at the premiere that "People are asking me 'So, are you going to do drama now?' And I say 'I've been doing drama for fifteen years. It's just that not as many people know because comedy audiences are so much broader." (Diaz has indeed starred in a few dramas, the period Parisian movie "An Invisible Circus" and a smaller part in "Gangs of New York," and there were dramatic qualities to "In Her Shoes," though there she was playing a party girl who hadn't quite grown up.)

Beyond the '90's It Girl issue, the larger question is whether Warners can make the movie work. The pic -- which will surely garner strong word-of-mouth -- is opening in the second week of "Transformers" and the weekend of July 4th, which will both siphon off screens and people. And it's a downer film at a time when those (we're told) don't work.

But it's also such a hard-core counter-programming choice to the talking robots -- it's as in-your-face emotionally as "Transformers" is visually -- that it should gobble up a huge chunk of the female audience, taking care of the Johnny Depp factor in "Public Enemies" and even holding its own against "Ice Age," which will draw away women with young children.

In a way it reminds us of the "Up" and "Hangover" weekend, when the purer forms of entertainment those movies offered beat out the hybrid "Land of the Lost." "My Sister's Keeper" may not always be gentle or even subtle, but it packs a wallop. And in this "Hangover" and "Transformers" era of knowing your demo and giving it what it wants, that should more than keep.

Just saw this and I thought it was great. While the critics tend to overthink things, I go with my gut, and this one was a real gut-wrencher. It was sad, but at the same time, a beautiful, poignant story about life and death and love and all the things in between. The only thing that I didn't like about it was that it only hinted at the way Kate's illness had fractured the family without exploring it in more detail, particularly older brother Jessie, who seems to be only mentioned in a side note. The peripheral characters, such as the brother and the father, could have been developed a little better. But overall it was a great film, to be watched from the heart and not the mind.

As for the performances, Cameron Diaz was really surprising as the mother, ferocious and dogged to the point of obliterating everything and everyone else from her POV except Kate's survival. Abigail Breslin is good as Anna, but imo, the movie really belongs to Sofia Vassilieva, who portrays Kate with such grace and strength that she just rips your heart out as you watch her slow deterioration and her pain at seeing what her illness has done to her family and she struggles to come to grips with her own fate. If anyone in this movie deserves an Oscar nomination, it's Vassilieva, who is stunning in her role and steals the movie from everyone else.

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***1/2 Review from Roger Ebert.

My Sister's Keeper (PG-13)

/ / June 24, 2009

Cast & Credits
Sara Cameron Diaz
Anna Abigail Breslin
Campbell Alec Baldwin
Brian Jason Patric
Kate Sofia Vassilieva
Judge Joan Cusack
Jesse Evan Ellingson

New Line Cinema presents a film directed by Nick Cassavetes. Written by Jeremy Leven and Cassavetes, based on the novel by Jodi Picoult. Running time: 108 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for mature thematic content, some disturbing images, sensuality, language and brief teen drinking).

by Roger Ebert

"My Sister’s Keeper” is an immediate audience-grabber, as we learn that an 11-year-old girl was genetically designed as a source of spare parts for her dying 16-year-old sister. Yes, it’s possible: in vitro fertilization assured a perfect match. And no, this isn’t science fiction like Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, with its cloned human replacements. It’s just a little girl subjected to major procedures almost from birth to help her sister live.

So far they have succeeded, and Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) is alive long after her predicted death at 5. Her sister, Anna (Abigail Breslin), has donated blood, bone marrow and stem cells, and now is being told she must donate one of her kidneys. She’s had it. It dismays her to know she was conceived as an organ bank, and she wants her chance at a normal life without round trips to the operating room. She may be young but she’s bright and determined, and she decides to file a lawsuit against her parents for “medical emancipation.”

Hers would be a model family if not for her sister’s death sentence. Her mom, Sara (Cameron Diaz), was a successful Los Angeles lawyer. Her dad, Brian (Jason Patric), is a fire chief. Her older brother, Jesse (Evan Ellingson), is a good student, but feels ignored. Anna and Kate love each other dearly. But always there is Sara’s relentless drive to keep her daughter alive. Like some successful attorneys, she also wants to win every case in her private life.

Anna goes to an attorney who boasts a 90 percent success rate in his TV ads. This is the polished Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin), who drives a Bentley convertible and is known for bringing his dog into courtrooms. Sara offers her savings of $700. This is far under his fee, but he listens and accepts the case.

Although “My Sister’s Keeper,” based on the best-seller by Jodi Picoult, is an effective tearjerker, if you think about it, it’s something else. 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.

The mother is appalled by the lawsuit. Keeping her daughter alive has been a triumph for her all of these years. The father is shocked, too, but calmer and more objective. He can see Anna’s point. She has her own life to live, and her own love to demand. The performances don’t go over the top, although they can see it from where they’re standing. Cameron Diaz has the greatest challenge because her determination is so fierce, but she makes her love evident — more for Kate, it must be said, than for Anna and Jesse. Jason Patric too rarely gets sympathetic roles, and embodies thoughtfulness and tenderness here. The young actors never step wrong.

Nicely nuanced, too, is Alec Baldwin as the hot-shot attorney. He doesn’t have a posh office, and his photo is plastered on billboards, but he’s not a fly-by-night, and he has a heart. He also has a sense of humor; in several supporting roles recently, he has stepped in with lines enriched by unexpected flashes of wit. Also navigating around cliches here is Joan Cusack as the judge. She takes that impossible case and convinces us she handles it about as well as possible. The enigma is the underdeveloped brother, Jesse, who runs away for three days.

We’re never told what that was all about; in the film, it serves merely to distract us when Taylor (Thomas Dekker), Kate’s fellow cancer patient, seems to disappear. The hospital romance between Taylor and Kate is one of the best elements of the movie, tender, tactful and very touching.

The screenplay by Jeremy Leven and Nick Cassavetes (who also directed) is admirable in trusting us to figure things out. Because it’s obvious in one beautiful scene that Kate is wearing a wig, they don’t ask, “Will the audience understand that?” and add a jarring line. Routine courtroom theatrics are avoided. We learn of the verdict in the best way. We can see the wheels turning, but they turn well.

I don't know but is Cameron Diaz lead or Supporting??? I think she's supporting.

I saw the film this afternoon (life has been pretty good lately and I needed something sad to even things out. Sort of an emotional sorbet.) and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't awe inspiring and perfect, but it was very effective. Sofia Vasilieva was fantastic. She was heartbreaking and beautiful. She had the most difficult role in the movie and could have devolved into tears and martyrdom, but she makes Kate very real. The other performers were very solid as well. This is one of the few times that Cameron Diaz didn't annoy me. Abigail Breslin kept Anna from becoming a selfish tween, and let the love for her family show through. Jason Patric didn't play a jerk and shows he can be sympathetic and open. The character of Jesse got a bit short changed though. It never showed what his deal was, but Evan Ellingson was good. I liked that the movie came by its emotions honestly, especially the trip to the beach (before & during).

I read some articles about how the movie differed from the book, ESPECIALLY the ending. Other differences include a character eliminated (who was also involved with Alec Baldwin's character), expanded reasoning for Jesse's behavior, etc. When I read what the book ending was, I was glad the movie was different. I don't think it would have worked in this film.