I'll start this post with the requisite SPOILER ALERT for those of you who haven't seen this weekend's weepy cancer-centric Jodi Picoult adaptation. Read the full post.
Jun 27
2009
02:46 PM ET
'My Sister's Keeper': About that ending...
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It didn’t really matter, both the movie and the book were amazing. Both had different messages. The movie was about moving on and continuing life and letting go of things, while the book was basically no life is guaranteed and you just have to LIVE. Both are meaningful messages, and I personally think people should just shut up about “omg it was so horrible… compared to the book” If every movie in the world was based off a book no one would enjoy movies! Movies and books are DIFFERENT it’s not posible for them to be the same. Otherwise, a movie would just be the text of the novel shown on the screen and nothing else. They are completely different things.
Although I know that sometimes books have to be simplified to create a movie that is not too long, I was disappointed in several things. First, I think that they did a poor job of developing the Father and brother characters. They were much more important in the book. Second, leaving the whole “case worker” like character out left a big whole in that part of the store line. And of course, the ending was just not right on any level. Read the book – it is much, much better.
I strongly dislike the directors change in the ending of this movie. If he wouldve kept the ending the same as the book then I bet it wouldve been a much bigger hit. Also, he failed to add the character of julia, who in the story was annas GAL.
So pretty much after I watched the movie I wanted to scream
i’m glad they changed it. i absolutely HATED the book ending to ‘my sister’s keeper’. sure, it was a ‘gotcha’ twist, but as a reader i felt blindsided. we followed anna’s journey to be independent and to live her own life, not solely as a donor to kate. anna won a small victory for herself, then she is killed off. i really was angry after i read it. anyways, i think the change is more true to life and shows that cancer is difficult and often devastating, but it also shows that standing up for yourself and wanting to live life is not punishable by death.
Jill, who left the comment below, I think you completely missed the boat. Anna was NOT fighting for herself at all. Thus her victory was for her sister. So you may have hated the ending of the book, but it seems that you missed the point entirely anyway. I personally hate that they changed the ending of the movie. They made a pretty good film. But the original ending would have made it GREAT!
jill Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 06:32 PM EST
i’m glad they changed it. i absolutely HATED the book ending to ‘my sister’s keeper’. sure, it was a ‘gotcha’ twist, but as a reader i felt blindsided. we followed anna’s journey to be independent and to live her own life, not solely as a donor to kate. anna won a small victory for herself, then she is killed off. i really was angry after i read it. anyways, i think the change is more true to life and shows that cancer is difficult and often devastating, but it also shows that standing up for yourself and wanting to live life is not punishable by death
Thank you…now I will for sure not be going to see the movie. People are always trying to change things-about themselves, others etc etc. Why can no one be satisfied with the original? There is nothing else to say, original is gold. As soon as you change that, it removes the realism. This society is ensuring that – like nina said – nothing is kept sacred. This is just one more example. I will definitely be passing this movie up.
Nic…I completely agree with you when you say you hate how they changed the ending of the movie. I have not been to see it, nor will I, but based off of the comments I now know what they did to the movie, and I think that watching it will ruin the impact of the book. However, I have to disagree when you said that ‘anna was NOT fighting for herself at all’. What was she fighting for? The right to make her own decisions regarding her own body. That is for herself, not for anyone else.
This is one of the best books I have ever read and I was extremely anxious for the movie. I cannot even describe how upset I was. First of all, they cut out a whole character, I was quite excited to see Julia. Second of all, there was not as much about the case as in the book. Third of all, that ending…how could you take such a beautiful ending to the book and get rid of it??? The ending was one of the best parts of the book, I cried…as soon as I heard Anna’s voiceover in the movie say that her sister died…I was in shock…I could not believe it. There had better be some type of alternate ending on the DVD.
Nick Cassavetes…… thankyou, thankyou,thankyou and God Bless you for changing that horrible ending to one that people who have lost a daughter, and sister to cancer can leave the cinema feeling so grateful to have had them in their lives.
the real ending to this movie is that the girl who has cancer asctually lives and the girl who was cloned actually dies yes she does when the case but she does die in a car or i think bus crash and all her orgons are donated to her sister and the brother in real life becomes totaly distroyes getting in drugs at least thats what i heard cant be sure
They should have at least put a disclaimer in the beginning of the movie saying “This movie is not a true adaptation of the book, but instead is based very loosely upon it with similar characters”
Also, to “Annie” who said [Nick Cassavetes…… thankyou, thankyou,thankyou and God Bless you for changing that horrible ending to one that people who have lost a daughter, and sister to cancer can leave the cinema feeling so grateful to have had them in their lives.]
How about you stop wasting your money on good books and complaining about them and donate that money to a fund that can help other people no die from cancer. You are totally dishonoring your daughter/sister by wasting your money on entertainment instead of working to prevent it from happening to others.
I cried and also cross with myself for shedding the tears. The film can’t really decide which angle to take on any of the issues, so nothing comes through with decisiveness. I haven’t read the book and actually assumed Kate was Anna’s keeper. Diaz put the husband in the shadows and she had 2-D emotions. The director was running a marathon for politically correct emotions using the Hollywood manual.
I think the point of the book was that the mother spent so much time trying to protect her oldest daughter that unknowingly she was unaware that something could happen to any of her children at any time, from things other than cancer. In the end, she lost the daughter she never expected to lose.. I think the movie lost that point. Love all of your kids, and treasure all of their lives because even the ones you don’t expect to lose can be lost.
FINALLY summoned up the courage to watch the movie (knowing well from the book it was going to be a heart breaker!)…. and absolutely gutted at the scope changes.
Wouldn’t have believed it.
I told friends to buy the book because of the strength of the ending.
Gah! Shattered!