My Sister's Keeper

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: An 11-year-old girl (Abigail Breslin), who was genetically created to be an organ donor for her cancer-ridden sister (Sofia Vassilieva), takes her parents (Cameron Diaz & Jason Patric) to court for the rights to her own body.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Abigail Breslin, Cameron Diaz, Sofia Vassilieva, Jason Patric, Alec Baldwin, Evan Ellingson, Heather Wahlquist, Joan Cusack, Thomas Dekker, David Thornton, Emily Deschanel

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. What an incredible moral dilemma! Protect your own long future or save your sister's life, over and over again as she quickly approaches certain death? And to put that in the hands of an 11-year-old! I was so excited to sit in the theater as I watched it unfold, not sure whose side to take... And then suddenly, about half way through, the filmmakers completely forget what their premise is, drop the lawsuit storyline, and start meandering off on a melodramatic tangent about how hard life is for the 15-year-old cancer victim.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Alec Baldwin is in the film, so he squeezes a little humor out of his parts.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Almost the whole way through... For the first half. And then you sit there, wondering where the great movie you were watching went.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: It seems like Cameron Diaz is angling for one. But I think it'll take a lot more than this film to get the Academy to notice her.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Excellent, on everyone's part. They all regularly have to cry on cue, and none of them have any difficulty being right there with it.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: It stops too frequently for beautiful collages set to sad songs. Cut, cut, cut!

Q: How is the story/script?

A: It starts off with this interesting voice over that floats from one character to another. But before long, that becomes nothing more than a device used to throw in random scenes that the writer doesn't have to think of clever transitions for, creating a movie that is episodic instead of fluid. And I hate to see a good dilemma get ignored.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: Whoever was in charge of creating the art that both the cancer victim and her brother lay claim to in the film, is talented.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/my-sisters-keeper/32323/trailers

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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: When an SS Commander gets a promotion to go run a concentration camp, his 8-year-old son is so starved for companionship, that he secretly forms a friendship with an imprisoned Jewish boy, through an electric fence.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon, Amber Beattie, Rupert Friend, Cara Horgan, Richard Johnson, David Hayman, Sheila Hancock

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. This is certainly a powerful movie-- how could it not be? It's about the Holocaust-- but it's not for those who need their conclusions tied up in a pretty pink ribbon.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: This movie is for very serious audiences, so don't laugh too loud, lest you offend someone.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It doesn't deliberately pull on your heart-strings and bang you over the head with emotions and music like a Hollywood movie would, but if you fill in the unspoken thoughts and feelings in your head, you might still cry, because it is pretty sad.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: You have to admit the title is great! What a cute little way of describing a small child who is put in a prison camp to starve, perform hard labor, and die for no good reason.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Vera Farmiga is in her usual top form, and looking more stunning than usual, I might add. And the little boys, Asa Butterfield and Jack Scanlon, take their time with the moments and dialogue, to really think about what they're saying, as if they weren't acting at all.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: The film is beautifully shot, as the tones of the lighting shift from warm to cold, following their move from their happy life in Berlin, to the countryside, where their neighbors are concentration camp prisoners, and their lives becomes increasingly more and more grim.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The story is appropriately understated as it depicts how even the people closest to the top SS Commanders had virtually no idea how badly the Jews were being treated in the camps, and how they, too, could be adversely affected by the atrocities surrounding them.

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