MY SISTER’S KEEPER
Nihilistic thoughts without God make this family drama deeply bleak.
Should You Watch It?
This is a sometimes deeply moving story about a family facing a daughter’s deadly leukemia. Its positive scenes of family love and togetherness can touch you, especially as the Fitzgeralds struggle through tragedy.
But the movie undercuts those moments with a nihilistic tone. One overt statement suggests that death is ultimately meaningless, even while “Amazing Grace” plays during a funeral. The film also includes strong language, sickness, violence, sexual material, and nudity. Its references to religion, Heaven, and a guardian angel never develop into a truly inspiring or biblical hope.
Because the movie has real emotional merit but is ultimately more depressing than inspiring, watch it at home only if you are a discerning adult prepared for its content and worldview.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESEleven-year-old Anna Fitzgerald was conceived in a test tube to help save her older sister Kate, who has leukemia. After years of medical procedures, Kate’s illness returns and her kidneys begin to fail.
With help from her brother Jesse, Anna seeks a lawyer to become “medically emancipated” from her parents. She does not want to donate a kidney to Kate. Her decision shakes the Fitzgerald household, and flashbacks reveal how the family reached this crisis.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means this film has genuine emotional power, even though its final effect is bleak. Viewers will be greatly touched at times by the desperate family’s struggle with deadly illness. Several scenes of family love and togetherness through tragedy are positive and affecting.
The story is narrated by several main characters and uses flashbacks to show how the crisis developed. The movie’s emotional strengths are ultimately overwhelmed by its nihilistic tone and depressing ending, leaving a humanist conclusion that the source review finds stifling.
The Worldview
The film presents a family trying to find its way through suffering, death, and impossible medical choices. It exalts family love and togetherness, and it recognizes the emotional weight of caring for someone with a deadly illness.
But the movie removes God from the family’s response to tragedy. None of the family members prays to God or Jesus, and the references to Heaven and a guardian angel remain slight. The film eventually suggests that life and death have no ultimate meaning, undercutting its occasional religious references and its pro-family message.
That view departs sharply from a biblical understanding of suffering. Scripture acknowledges death’s sting but does not treat death as meaningless or hope as a delusion. As Paul writes, “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Strong humanist worldview with a nihilistic tone of meaninglessness and a narrated statement (while the song “Amazing Grace” is playing during a funeral) that the death which occurred was ultimately meaningless, mitigated slightly by some positive scenes of strong family love and light references to Heaven and a guardian angel, but these references are not developed into anything truly inspiring or strongly Christian or biblical and are ultimately undercut by the depressing ending; 10 obscenities (including one or two “f” words), five strong profanities and six light profanities, plus very sick child vomits several times, including blood one time; some violence includes a couple intense arguments, implied suicide, attempted suicide with pills, and intense hospital procedures and sickness; implied sex between teenagers (who are shown lying in bed afterwards), passionate kissing between teenagers and microscopic shots of human reproductive objects and in vitro fertilization, plus male teenager hangs around on streets that seem to have prostitutes walking by or standing around, but no pickups are seen; upper male nudity and upper nudity of young girl child in hospital setting; alcohol use; no smoking; and, character says death is meaningless as “Amazing Grace” is played during funeral scene, lying, girl sues her parents for medical emancipation, and terminally ill patient does not want kidney transplant and further treatment for leukemia, but the issue is not fully resolved nor properly discussed in an enlightening, biblical manner.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The Fitzgerald family faces suffering together, but the film struggles to find lasting hope. Where can Christians look for hope when death feels overwhelming?
1 Corinthians 15:56–58Anna’s decision raises difficult questions about family love, personal responsibility, and medical choices. How should love guide us when every available choice causes pain?
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 · Philippians 2:3–4The film suggests that death is ultimately meaningless. How does that idea differ from the Christian hope of resurrection?
John 11:25–26 · 1 Corinthians 15:20–22The Final Word
This family drama contains genuinely touching moments, but its nihilistic message and difficult content make its humanist ending more depressing than inspiring. If you are an adult prepared to discuss those concerns, watch at home rather than bringing children or young teens. Our answer is WAIT FOR HOME — ADULTS ONLY. For more hopeful family options, see.
