Reviews

Major Spoiler! Others have commented on the quality of the acting, and I agree. Right down the line, this ensemble was a joy to watch. Others have also commented on what might be called the movie's Hallmark Channel approach to its material. I found it appropriate. My friends and I were of the opinion that it would have been very difficult to try another approach on this very real, thorny subject.

The movie sets up a complex and poignant problem within the family. Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) is dying of leukemia, and Sara, the mother (Cameron Diaz), can't let go. The film goes to great lengths to show us how the situation is damaging everybody else, as well. In her scrapbook Kate writes that not only is she dying, she is killing her family. Unfortunately, she's right.

Anna (Abigail Breslin) fights for her medical emancipation not because she hates her sister, but because she has a right to her own life. This is a brilliant and fundamental conflict experienced in all families, though not so dramatically. How much of my life do I have to give up to promote the needs of the others or of the whole? There is no easy solution to this problem. One person's welfare is often in irrevocable conflict with another's. But after working so hard to help us understand this conflict and all that it implies for this family, the movie cops out. Anna is not seeking her own life. She is, actually, secretly carrying out the wishes of her sister, who wants to be allowed to die. She is bravely going through one more terribly painful procedure on Kate's behalf.

By abandoning the central conflict, the film loses its drama just as it peaks. And, perhaps unintentionally, it comes down on Sara's side. Anna does not have a right to her own life; in fact, she doesn't even conceive it. (The fact that she wins her lawsuit is an epilogue and carries no weight by the time we get there.) It is as if Cain didn't really kill Able. Rather, he pretended to so he could inherit the farm and then give it to Able afterward.

To throw away the movie's major dramatic arc just as it is peaking is a pretty major decision. Why would the movie makers do such a thing? Did they think that we, the audience, couldn't stomach anything more? Are they right?

Who could pass up the opportunity to see Judy Dench and Maggie Smith working together? Not me! They get lots of screen time, and they don't disappoint. They provide low key performances that, nevertheless, carry plenty of tension. This is a character story, an evocation of people, time, and place, like so many wonderful small English films.

Some of the editing bothered me. I also wondered about the lack of development given the mysterious character who suddenly enters their lives -- it is a glaring omission, given the attention lavished on the ladies. Here lies what was, for me, the central disappointment in the film. Two German speaking young adults have left their countries and come to Cornwall. Who are they really? Why have they left? What is their business in Cornwall? Intriguing possibilities and complications abound, given the epoch and location of the film. Some of them get mentioned, but they go unexplored. As a result, the film shrinks back from potentially interesting dramatic conflicts. It stays sweet and predictable. It is an enjoyable film, but less than it could have been.