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Before we even get rolling here, I’d just like say, I’ve never read the book.

It’s important to make this point clear when taking on a review of My Sister’s Keeper, as there seems to be two opposing viewpoints when it comes to assessing this picture: those who have read (and enjoyed) Jodi Picoult’s novel, and everyone else.

Not to dangle any spoilers, but the ending of the movie differs from the book. And, when I say differs, I understand it takes a whopper of a hairpin turn.

Thus, Picoult’s faithful are steamed. But if, by chance, you haven’t cracked the pages of the book, please don’t let this literary/cinematic turf war steer you away from My Sister’s Keeper, a relatively good weeper. No, not great. But certainly good.

In the film, Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric play a seemingly perfect couple –– successful, affluent, good looking –– when life suddenly throws them a tragic hurdle: their daughter Kate is diagnosed with leukemia.

With no genetic match, a doctor quietly suggests that they try to “create” one.

Thus, a “little piece of blue sky,” as her mother calls her, Anna (with assistance from a petri dish and solid timing,) is born. And while we obviously feel for Kate, there is also empathy for her little sister as her blood and bone marrow is siphoned off at an alarming rate.

And voila! A thorny ethical issue, a perfect debate topic for when those tears finally dry up. What if the younger, healthy child got tired of being stuck with needles and hospitalized and decided to sue her parents for emancipation of her own body? That’s exactly what Anna (Abigail Breslin) does, pinning her hopes on a slick attorney (Alec Baldwin) who agrees to take on her case.

Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) doesn’t exactly disown her sister for the decision, while Diaz, the fierce, protective mom desperate for a miracle, actually admits, at one point, that Kate is the child she simply must care about the most.

My Sister’s Keeper can’t help but get a little manipulative in its approach, yet it maintains a certain tenderness, and there are two big reasons why.

For one, director Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) knows a little bit about plucking the heartstrings until the gooey stuff successfully oozes, and two, the younger portion of this cast keeps the show genuine.

Breslin is a child star that somehow always brings her A game. Vassilieva gives a heartbreakingly effective performance, as does Evan Ellingson who plays the family’s son.

As for the big kids? A C+ seems reasonable. Diaz, for all the hype surrounding this role, just doesn’t do it justice – much of the film, she’s just yelling. Patric fares better as the broken dad, but the real grown-up gem is Baldwin. I realize he’s playing a shameless, self-promoting schmuck here, but he really seems to care for Anna. There are more than a few moments, he’s the heart of My Sister’s Keeper.

Overall, it works. Cassavetes does a decent job of balancing gratuitous sentiment with honest material to make My Sister’s Keeper a sweet, and yes, sad, afternoon at the movies. And if you don’t agree with me, just remember, I never read the book.

The feature is currently playing at Famous Players Seven in Vernon.

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