My Sister’s Keeper is a heavy handed drama, ploughed down by its shameless attempt to squeeze every last drop of tear from its audience.

The film is based on a popular novel by Jodi Picoult, and by all accounts it is a genuine tear jerker which tells the story of how the weight of cancer almost destroys a family. Adapting the novel is co-writer/director Nick Cassavetes, whose The Notebook has become the new go to film if in need for some chick flick melodrama. Cassavetes tries to repeat the same magic here, but fails. Badly.   

My Sister’s Keeper begins with an introduction to the Fitzgerald family, a close knit group on the surface, but closer examination finds glaring cracks sure to bring down its foundation.

This is due to the tragedy which befalls eldest daughter Kate (Soffia Vassilieva) who was diagnosed from leukaemia at an early age. She has managed to survive with the sickness into her mid teens, thanks to her younger sister Anna (Abigail Breslin), an in vitro child brought into the world to be used as spare parts for Kate.

Unwilling to go under the knife for a kidney operation, Anna sues her parents - over protective mother Sara (Cameron Diaz) and conflicted father Brian (Jason Patric) – for medical emancipation and the right to her own body.

It is an interesting moral dilemma, but rather than sticking to the films main narrative, Cassavetes spirals into several different sub-plots that are supposed to add weight to its central premise, but far too quickly becomes a tedious and frustrating viewing experience.         

As each character is introduced, Cassavetes employs the same structure: Narration; flashback; and scene featuring weepy pop song. The mission of every scene is to have those tears falling until there is nothing left in the reservoir. Yet Cassavetes has managed to do the impossible: he has made the tragedy of a young girl dying from cancer an emotion less affair.

The real victims here are the films cast, especially Vassilieva who depicts the pain and sorrow of her characters situation without resorting to ham fisted drama, which is quite an achievement considering the films direction.