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I usually don't mind watching a film that has me reaching for the tissues but this time I am prepared to make an exception.
The words 'yawn' and 'why isn't this over yet' come to mind when trying to explain how I feel about this disaster of a movie. As do, bleak, boring, melodramatic and cumbersome. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to say this is the worst film I have ever seen ... and I've watched the Blair Witch Project!
This film starts as an interesting exploration about the ethics of genetic selection and organ-donation, yet it very quickly becomes pointless, unstructured and a complete tear-jerking mess, unclear about who's story is being told or what the point is.
It begins with a voice-over, in which the audience learns that 11-year-old Anna was a designed baby, born for the sole purpose of helping to save her older sister Kate's life. Kate was diagnosed with Leukemia at an early age and her mother simply couldn't handle it so she had another child ... to fill the void? No, to harvest her for spare parts apparently.
Anna has the same DNA and is therefore an ideal candidate to provide 'parts' for her alling sister. While some may find this to be sad, I just thought it was a less entertaining version of Frankenstein.
The girls' mother Sarah is a driven woman (played by the uncharacteristically unattractive Cameron Diaz) who has sacrificed everything to try and save her beloved eldest daughter's life. But as Kate's condition gets worse and another operation looks likely, Anna approaches a lawyer to sue her parents for the right to her own body.
Since the film is set in America the idea of an 11-year-old suing her parents doesn't seem too far-fetched, but the rest of the plot borders on the unbelievable. A frankly un-ambitious, non-linear storyline does nothing to help matters and if anything, distracts from whatever point was trying to be made.
The director has done his best to create tender and emotional moments to thread this haphazard film together, but it just doesn't work because the logic behind it is amazingly flawed. The film doesn't sufficiently explore the legal and ethical tensions that I believe should've been the focus of this story.
In my opinion, this film is a monotonous tear-jerker that will only appeal to middle-aged women and pubescent girls.
l Showing in Seef I and Saar Cineplex
