By Steven Zeitchik
 
Diaz
Reinventions run riot in "My Sister's Keeper," the surprisingly effective New Line tearjerker about a family whose daughter is dying of leukemia, which we saw earlier this week at its New York premiere.
 
Director Nick Cassavetes goes from the crime dramas of his post-"Notebook" phase back to Weepyville. Abigail Breslin plays a conflicted, (slightly) more complex (or at least confused) pre-adolescent instead of merely a cute one, as the patient's sister.
 
And most significantly, Cameron Diaz, playing the tenacious mother who fights for her daughter's life even well beyond when it's reasonable to do so, moves on from the romantic comedies and one-of-the-guys testosterone pics to Kleenex-factory territory. (Alec Baldwin, playing a smirking ambulance-chasing lawyer, pretty much stays where he's been for some time.)
 

Diaz's turn doesn't always work — even with puffy eyes and impassioned speeches, there's something still a little slight about her presence to make us believe this is a woman blinded by her own maternal love — but she's surrounded by enough acting talent and a strong enough script that in the right moment she can still give you a jolt.
 
The question is whether the film will do the same for her career, which has been a little boxed-in of late (last two pics: "What Happens In Vegas" and "The Holiday") , and her apparent interest to start playing against type. (Diaz's name has come up for Cassavetes' environmental drama "Peaceable Kingdom," among other more serious roles.)

The short answer: It could, but it will need strong reviews and strong boxoffice to offer that boost. At the very least, though, it gives her agents something to work with.

 
Interestingly, the actress herself doesn't see "Keeper" as a reinvention — she told us at the premiere that "People are asking me 'So, are you going to do drama now?' And I say 'I've been doing drama for fifteen years. It's just that not as many people know because comedy audiences are so much broader." (Diaz has indeed starred in a few dramas, the period Parisian movie "An Invisible Circus," Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday," where she showed similar feistiness to here, and a smaller part in "Gangs of New York." And there were dramatic qualities to "In Her Shoes," though there she was playing a party girl who hadn't quite grown up, so we're not sure that counts.)
As for whether, indeed, that box-office will come.. The pic — which is a strong word-of-mouth candidate — is opening against the juggernaut that is "Transformers." Plus it's a downer film at a time when those (we're told) don't work.
 
But it's also such a hard-core counter-programming choice to the talking robots — it's as in-your-face emotionally as "Transformers" is visually — that it should gobble up a huge chunk of the female audience. "My Sister's Keeper" may not always be gentle or even subtle, but it packs a wallop. And in this "Hangover" and "Transformers" era of knowing your demo and giving it what it wants, that should more than keep.

SUNDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Ah well, the downer people were right. The movie nabbed a modest $12 million on more than 2500 screens. Still, we wouldn't write it off yet. This is a word-of-mouth movie that should hold reasonably well, or even spike, in coming weeks. Among the core women demo, it's going up against the Johnny Depp factor in "Public Enemies" and the new "ice Age" next weekend. The latter should siphon off some mothers with young children, but we still say "Keeper" rakes in $10 million next weekend and shows some legs through July.

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