Michelle and I went to see the movie, My Sister’s Keeper, this weekend.  I had seen the previews several times before going, and so I knew the gist.  Normally, movies like this are ones I try to avoid.  When I know a movie is going to work overtime to make me cry, I generally try to stay away, but I’m married, and so I’m not the only one deciding which movie I’m going to see at any given time.  So, tonight, Michelle and I saw a movie that the New York Times called “an unapologetic, shameless, ruthless, weepie movie from start to finish.”

For the record, I didn’t cry (I didn’t even cry at Marley and Me!)…but I did leave the theater feeling pretty miserable.  The story was a sad one, but it was the utter hopelessness the family experienced as they faced the impending death of their daughter that really bothered me.

SPOILER ALERT!  As older sister “Kate” is dying of leukemia, she tells her younger sister “Anna” that she doesn’t know where she will go when she dies, but she says, “If you want to find me, just go to Montana.”  After Kate dies, Anna says that Kate died and became a piece of the blue sky.

Now…I know not to expect anything more than this from Hollywood, but I do have to say that every time I watch a movie that deals with death, and I observe the empty ways in which Hollywood speculates about life after death (or the lack of any life after death), I just feel sad.

I thought the way the family in My Sister’s Keeper processed the eventual death of Kate was so empty, it was hardly believable.  There was no spiritual consideration at all by anyone, which seems a bit hard to believe.  Even the hardest religious skeptic will usually make some spiritual consideration when faced with impending death, but so often, Hollywood neglects the spiritual side of death all together.

Like I said, I didn’t expect anything more than what I got, I just thought I’d share my saddness and the “yuck” feeling I left the theater with after watching Hollywood present death – once again – void of any spiritual specualtion or consideration.  The Scriptures say that man is made in the image of God, and my hunch is that God gets at least some consideration by almost all of us at some point as we make life’s journey toward the grave.