At first I hated this movie, until...

Until I got over the beginning scenes with Emmy Rossum. At first she acted like a self-absorbed a-hole, at the interview with Kate and her husband and then in the scene when she reluctantly has to help Kate to go to the bathroom and she slips, holding Kate, and laughs as if it's funny to drop a woman with ALS on the floor of the bathroom. She obviously doesn't care about Kate and is just doing it for the money. It all seemed too over-the-top, and I almost gave up on it. But then the movie changed, when Emmy's character changed, and it gradually grew on me. The scenes, as Kate's ALS grows worse, and she begins having trouble breathing and slurs her words so that you can't understand her, were very poignant and well done. Hilary has been one of my favorites actors since her stunning Boys Don't Cry, also in Million Dollar Baby. Another of hers where she was great, though it didn't get a lot of play because of the subject matter, Woman's Suffrage, was Iron Jawed Angels. Emmy's acting wasn't quite at that level, but she was good.