'My Sister's Keeper' (PG-13)(out of four)

"My Sister's Keeper" has all the elements to tug at your heartstrings and tear your emotional core into small pieces.

Perfect parents with everything going for them -- he's a firefighter, she's a lawyer -- two beautiful children (well, three after the story progresses, but more on that later), and a medical trauma that alters their life forever. After spotting bruising on their 2-year-old, Kate, doctors deliver the horrible blow -- Kate has leukemia.

While Jodi Picoult's novel, on which the movie is based, was more of a character study, Nick Cassavettes' direction zooms in on the overall picture, a child with cancer, the struggle the family faces because of it, the grief that such an illness causes, and the ultimate loss one must endure. It's fairly wrapped up neat with a bow and delivered matter-of-factly. This is where "My Sister's Keeper," the film, gets plucked away from the heart of "My Sister's Keeper," the book, whose story is told in such character study detail that cancer isn't just one person's illness, but a genuine destroyer of joy and hope.

Cameron Diaz plays Sara, by far the central character in the story. To see Diaz in a serious role of a mother who gives up everything to help keep her daughter alive is interesting to watch. She works hard to ditch her "Something About Mary" persona and dig into a meaty role.

This film gives her a slight chance, but never really allows her to go deep. We're never sure if Diaz really can go dramatically deep, or if this film role wasn't the one that would allow it. On the surface, Sara is fighting for her daughter's life and it's tearing her marriage apart. Her relationships with her sister and her children are in chaos, yet short of a glossy film finish, we never are allowed to go inside of her soul.

Jason Patric as Brian Fitzgerald plays passive as the patient husband. His character is forever kept in the background and he's many times not much more than window dressing or the means to show the audience Sara's chronic distress. Although rendered powerless by his wife's dogged determination, it is only toward the very end that we realize his personal struggle.

Son Jesse, who Picoult gave more than a passing glance to in the book as she delved into the angst of a 17-year-old boy overshadowed by his younger sister's sickness, is also cast to the side. Evan Ellingson is forced to play Jesse as a mere passerby in this emotional story.

As one would expect, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) and Anna (Abigail Breslin) are the characters with the most depth. Anna has been saddled with something she has known her whole life; that she was a child who was genetically engineered to be a living donor for whatever was needed to save Kate's life. This particular storyline is what feeds the film and keeps it from being a Lifetime TV-movie-of-the week. It will stir a debate of both moral and ethical concerns over the right and wrong of humangenics. Vassilieva is utterly convincing as the teen who has dealt with a chronic illness for as long as she can remember. Hollywood sweetheart Dakota Fanning was supposed to play the role of Kate, but bristled at the fact of shaving her head for the movie, so Vassilieva got the part.

Fanning's younger sister, Elle, was to have played the role of Anna, but Breslin brings an honest portrayal of a child who bears the weight of a sick older sister and a mother whose obsession with keeping the girl alive leaves everything else by the wayside, especially her other children.

When Anna hires a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to seek medical emancipation from her parents, you want to stand firmly by her side.

"My Mother's Keeper" is a roller coaster ride, pitting the audience against Sara, taking Anna's side, feeling sorry for Kate, and have them love, yet hate, the smarmy TV-savvy lawyer.

You'll also be subjected to going through the five stages of grief:

Denial -- This movie is good.

Anger -- Why did I come to see this movie? Men will feel this emotion especially.

Bargaining -- Well, the movie does bring up some very interesting points, both moral and ethical.

Depression -- Get out the tissues, the music in this movie is making me very sad.

Acceptance -- I read the book and although the movie wasn't all that the book was, it did have some good acting, and it was interesting to see Diaz bald (even though it was a bald cap).