MOVIE: MY SISTER’S KEEPER

For a movie about dying pretty teen (Sofia Vassilieva), this is a curiously dry-eyed affair. Nick Cassavette’s bathos-by-the-bucketload adaption of Jodi Picoult’s novel uses every manipulative trick possible, leaving us not much empathy for anyone, especially super-mom (Cameron Diaz). A pity, because the premise that younger sis (Abigail Breslin) rejects her family destiny (she was conceived to be a organ donor), is a pretty interesting one. She enlists a lawyer (nice cameo from Alex Baldwin) to protect her kidneys. He’s the only character who doesn’t weep throughout, but he does have an epileptic fit. Long-suffering boyfriends deserve to be well rewarded if they sit through this. If not, the line, “If I didn’t have cancer, I would never have met you,” should be kept for future use. (RE)