D.C. MOVIE GUYS

My Sister’s Keeper-Imagine the turmoil in your family if, in order to save the life of one beloved child, you and your husband/wife had to conceive a second child. A second child; whose major reason for living was to provide genetically “perfect” donor material for that first child. Take it a step further: suppose, one day, the second child wanted to stop participating in medical procedures, for fear of endangering its life? What would you do? How would you resolve this seemingly impossible dilemma?My Sister’s Keeper, based on the best selling novel of the same title, attempts to put a human face on this situation and delivers a mixed bag of emotionally charged moments.

For several years, the Fitzgerald family’s world has revolved around dealing with their oldest daughter Kate’s (Medium’s Sofia Vassilleva) battle with a rare form of leukemia. The family’s youngest child, eleven year old Anna (Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine,) stuns her mother (Cameron Diaz) and father (Jason Patric) by filing a lawsuit to “medically emancipate” herself from her parent’s desires. Almost since her birth, Anna has given blood, bone marrow and other material to help doctors help Kate fight her disease.

After some time in remission, Kate’s cancer has returned and, in order to remain strong enough to fight the disease, she needs to have a kidney transplant. Anna is the perfect match. Though she loves her sister she begins to wonder about the effects on her health and future. When she seeks the help of a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to seek legal protection from being forced to give the kidney, her stand brings a number of long simmering issues among the entire family to the forefront.

Director Nick Cassavettes (Alpha Dog, John Q.,) who co-wrote the screenplay with Jeremy Levin, has gambled a bit in telling the story. Rather than telling the story through only Anna’s eyes and in her voice, the film shifts focus several times throughout, with al major characters taking turns providing voiceovers that advance the plot. The movie also shifts in tine as different character take the storytelling lead.

Readers of the Jodi Pitcoult novel are likely to be surprised by the major departure the screenwriters have taken from the book’s ending. Cassavette’s use of music in the movie sometimes strikers a poignant and telling note. Just as often, however, the musical numbers feel like a device being employed to wring emotions from the audience. These moments are effective, but feel manipulative.

Where Keeper shines is in its cast. Sofia Vassilleva does an excellent job in making Kate a three dimensional character beyond her illness. Despite spending nearly two-thirds of the film without hair and eyebrows to simulate the ravages of chemotherapy, her acting is passionate and forceful. She is the film’s emotional anchor and, when she’s on screen, it becomes more than medical melodrama.

Breslin also adds another solid performance to her impressive resume. Alec Baldwin and Joan Cusack, as the judge presiding in the emancipation case, are quite effective in their roles. Unfortunately, Diaz and Patric fall short as the parents. Diaz’s stubborn reluctance to listen to her younger daughter’s pleas renders her dislikeable from the start and the flashbacks and dialogue do little to make her more appealing. Patric, one of Hollywood’s bet “unknown” actors, is also underserved by the uneven script.

My Sister’s Keeper has genuine moments of deeply felt emotion and drama. It jus doesn’t have enough to make it worthy of a strong recommendation. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for profanity, mild sexuality, profanity and drug content. Joe’s Rating: Two (**) Stars.

Also in theaters this weekend (released June 24):

Transformer: Revenge of The Fallen-This is a sequel, the second film in what was supposed to be a great new franchise, based on the popular 1980’s animated kid’s show. Well, director Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys) has delivered a movie that’s a two, all right: too loud, too long and too bad, after a solid start.

Shia LaBeouf (Eagle Eye) returns as Sam Witwiky, the teenager who is the human link with the Autobots, the powerful robots who help to protect the Earth from the evil Decepticons. As the film begins, Sam’s off to college, leaving behind his guardian robot/car and his beautiful girlfriend, Mikela (Megan Fox.) But the Decepticons have plans for Sam, involving the Allspark and a long hidden machine that could revive Megatron for revenge on Optimus Prime and mankind.

Where the first Transformers film managed to re-work the television series back story in a way that made sense while adding new twists, the script here seems little more than a holding pattern. The movie is loaded with explosions and gunfire (a Bay trademark) but all the sound and fury signify nothing. The whole two-and- a-half hour running time seems to be a series of left turns.

Screenwriters Ehren Kruger (new to the series) and Robert Orci (co-writer of the first film and this year’s Star Trek) seem totally out of fresh ideas. Instead, they give us two Autobots, the Twins, who are this year’s Jar Jar Binks, annoying sidekicks whose hip hop sounding dialogue and speech patterns come off as offensive and racist.

In fact, the level of profanity in this “kid’s” movie seems rather too adult-and the movie’s several “come close” jokes with near curse words are a cynical wink to parents.

There’s a good reason why people dislike sequels. When filmmakers get lazy and figure they can use a popular title to get anything past a gullible public, you get a film like this one. Looks like the Transformers have changed from a sleek Mustang to a used Yugo with engine problems. Only the die-hard fans should

bother seeing this clunker. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for significant profanity, sexually based dialogue, crude humor, drug content and violence. Joe’s Rating: One (*) Star.

Joe Barber’s entertainment reports and reviews can be heard Fridays through Sundays on the WTOP-M Radio Network (103.5, 103.9, 107.7 & Wtop.com.) He can be seen regularly on WETA-TV’s Around Town and Fridays on Comcast Sports Net’s Washington Post Live.