Fact: Life is unpredictable. Death is inevitable.
I had many inhibitions about this movie when I watched the previews a couple of months before it's release. The previews pretty much give the story away just like any other Hollywood movie trailers. In this case, though you know basic premise of the movie, there is a lot more to it than what meets the eye. While on the topic of eyes, please make sure to bring a lot of tissues to wipe your tears off. What you can't wipe off are the thoughts you are going to take back home after watching such an emotional and sensitive story.
I didn't read the book written by Jodi Picoult on which this movie is based on and I haven't seen The Notebook or John Q, earlier movies made by Nick Cassavetes , the director who made this movie, but I can surely say this is one of my most favorite movies ever made in any language. It's a classic.
I like how the movie begins with each character in the movie explains its predicament and slowly connects with the audience at an individual level. The character Anna Fitzgerald played by Abigail Breslin is one of the most challenging roles played by any child actor. Abigail has tremendous potential to become one of the most prolific child artists in this generation. She shows the pain in her unwilling sacrifice, the happiness in being the younger sister, the anger in being just a donor child, and the sorrow in knowing the fact that she can't keep her sister alive. The only purpose of her life, to her parents, is to keep her dying sister alive. Abigail Breslin, a 13-yr old, is just magnificent.
The character played by Evan Ellingson is of a brother, Jesse, in the family whose two sisters are going through a lot of pain and emotional anxiety. Jesse's character in the book this movie is based on describes him as addicted to drugs and as juvenile delinquent. The character in the movie is a little different from the book, showing loneliness and pain for the most part and torn between parents and ailing sisters. He is dyslexic too which adds to the problems of the family. Evan did a great job and portrayed his loneliness in very natural way throughout the film.
The central character of the movie is Kate Fitzgerald, a cancer patient, played convincingly by Sofia Vassilieva. There are many emotional moments in the movie where I just couldn't stop weeping. Especially, the scenes that involve Kate and her love interest in the movie, Taylor, a fellow cancer patient who she meets at the hospital. As a viewer, I just wanted Kate and Taylor to fall in love at first sight, I wanted them to have a beautiful life, I wanted them to live longer happily together. The first time their eyes meet, the first time they go to the "hospital's prom", their first kiss.....the actors that played the characters steal the show with a tear-jerking performance. Sofia Vassilieva is brilliant as a dying cancer patient. A very matured and intense performance. She touches the hearts of each and every member of the audience with one of the best characters played in a long time in Hollywood. I really hope she wins more accolades and many more awards as she honestly deserves each one of them. Abigail and Sofia have already won 2010 Young Artists Awards for Best Performance in a Feature Film as Leading Actress and Supporting Actress respectively.
Jason Patric and Cameron Diaz play the characters of parents in this movie, handling the toughest situations any parent could handle in life.Cameron Diaz is a revelation in this movie. She is not goofy in this movie as she is in 20 of her other movies. She plays a lawyer, a mother with great amounts of pain, focusing solely on keeping daughter Kate alive at any cost. This goes to prove that we don't always need a Julia Roberts or a Meryl Streep to play characters like this one. If you liked Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side then this is Cameron Diaz's The Blind Side. Jason Patric's role has lesser screen time compared to the rest of the cast but he did his best in those few scenes. The scene where Kate climbs down the stairs wearing a beautiful prom dress and the rest of family is clicking pictures to capture one of the happiest moments in their lives and also in the movie, Jason's character Brian looks at his smiling daughter and mumbles "I love you" to her is one of the many heart wrenching scenes in the movie.
Alec Baldwin as Campbell Alexander who represents Anna in her case against her parents is adequate and did justice to his character.
This is a splendid movie. Just rent it and watch it tonight.
I had many inhibitions about this movie when I watched the previews a couple of months before it's release. The previews pretty much give the story away just like any other Hollywood movie trailers. In this case, though you know basic premise of the movie, there is a lot more to it than what meets the eye. While on the topic of eyes, please make sure to bring a lot of tissues to wipe your tears off. What you can't wipe off are the thoughts you are going to take back home after watching such an emotional and sensitive story.
I didn't read the book written by Jodi Picoult on which this movie is based on and I haven't seen The Notebook or John Q, earlier movies made by Nick Cassavetes , the director who made this movie, but I can surely say this is one of my most favorite movies ever made in any language. It's a classic.
I like how the movie begins with each character in the movie explains its predicament and slowly connects with the audience at an individual level. The character Anna Fitzgerald played by Abigail Breslin is one of the most challenging roles played by any child actor. Abigail has tremendous potential to become one of the most prolific child artists in this generation. She shows the pain in her unwilling sacrifice, the happiness in being the younger sister, the anger in being just a donor child, and the sorrow in knowing the fact that she can't keep her sister alive. The only purpose of her life, to her parents, is to keep her dying sister alive. Abigail Breslin, a 13-yr old, is just magnificent.
The character played by Evan Ellingson is of a brother, Jesse, in the family whose two sisters are going through a lot of pain and emotional anxiety. Jesse's character in the book this movie is based on describes him as addicted to drugs and as juvenile delinquent. The character in the movie is a little different from the book, showing loneliness and pain for the most part and torn between parents and ailing sisters. He is dyslexic too which adds to the problems of the family. Evan did a great job and portrayed his loneliness in very natural way throughout the film.
The central character of the movie is Kate Fitzgerald, a cancer patient, played convincingly by Sofia Vassilieva. There are many emotional moments in the movie where I just couldn't stop weeping. Especially, the scenes that involve Kate and her love interest in the movie, Taylor, a fellow cancer patient who she meets at the hospital. As a viewer, I just wanted Kate and Taylor to fall in love at first sight, I wanted them to have a beautiful life, I wanted them to live longer happily together. The first time their eyes meet, the first time they go to the "hospital's prom", their first kiss.....the actors that played the characters steal the show with a tear-jerking performance. Sofia Vassilieva is brilliant as a dying cancer patient. A very matured and intense performance. She touches the hearts of each and every member of the audience with one of the best characters played in a long time in Hollywood. I really hope she wins more accolades and many more awards as she honestly deserves each one of them. Abigail and Sofia have already won 2010 Young Artists Awards for Best Performance in a Feature Film as Leading Actress and Supporting Actress respectively.
Jason Patric and Cameron Diaz play the characters of parents in this movie, handling the toughest situations any parent could handle in life.Cameron Diaz is a revelation in this movie. She is not goofy in this movie as she is in 20 of her other movies. She plays a lawyer, a mother with great amounts of pain, focusing solely on keeping daughter Kate alive at any cost. This goes to prove that we don't always need a Julia Roberts or a Meryl Streep to play characters like this one. If you liked Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side then this is Cameron Diaz's The Blind Side. Jason Patric's role has lesser screen time compared to the rest of the cast but he did his best in those few scenes. The scene where Kate climbs down the stairs wearing a beautiful prom dress and the rest of family is clicking pictures to capture one of the happiest moments in their lives and also in the movie, Jason's character Brian looks at his smiling daughter and mumbles "I love you" to her is one of the many heart wrenching scenes in the movie.
Alec Baldwin as Campbell Alexander who represents Anna in her case against her parents is adequate and did justice to his character.
This is a splendid movie. Just rent it and watch it tonight.