A good movie

Since I have a weak spot for Nick Cassavetes' work and since it was the last movie he directed that I haven't seen yet, I was really eager to check this one out. I was also intrigued also by the fact that this flick seemed to create some polarizing responses. I mean, half of the viewers think it is a great tearjerker and the other half seems to think it is just an awfull tearjerker. Personally, I thought it was pretty good but not really great though. The main issue for me was that, in my opinion, the whole thing was too elaborate. Take the scrapbook for example. It looked awesome but it was pretty obvious that it was made by a professional designer and not by some teenager dying of leucemia. Furthermore, there were way too many characters (the sick girl, the little sister, the big brother, the father, the mother, the aunt, the sick girl's boyfriend, the judge, the lawyer, the lawyer's dog,...) and almost all of them had their own sub-plot and, even though most of them were interesting, they were all barely developed and rather half-baked. Still, I liked this flick. I mean, the premise (a young girl refuses to donate her organs to her dying sister) was really fascinating and definitely heartbreaking. It is too bad the whole thing fell apart at the end (indeed, during the courtroom scene, she confesses that her dying sister told her to do so but, this way, it  terribly weakened this character who basically didn't have the right to have her own desire, feelings and thoughts but she was only allowed to follow what her mother or her sister told her to do). I still really enjoyed all the characters and the cast gave some very good performances, especially Cameron Diaz. I have seen some viewers complaining about Diaz and I know she can be pretty annoying but I think it was really not justified in this case. Indeed, in my opinion, she gave here a terrific performance, probably the best of her career. It was a difficult role because she had to be, at the same time, a loving mother but also a saint and also a ruthless dictator who wouldn't listen to anybody. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it remains a decent drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

7/10