My Sister's Keeper

My Sister's Keeper is a 2009 American drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes and starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva, Jason Patric, and Alec Baldwin. Based on Jodi Picoult's 2004 novel of the same name, on June 26, 2009, the film was released to cinemas in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Plot As a young girl, Kate Fitzgerald is diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia, devastating her parents, firefighter Brian and lawyer Sara. As neither parent nor Kate's older brother Jesse are a genetic match, Brian and Sara conceive a savior sister, Anna, through in vitro fertilization. Beginning with the harvest of her umbilical cord at birth, Anna has donated compatible blood and stem cells to Kate, and her life has been full of hospitalizations, growth hormone injections, opioid painkillers, sleeping pills, bleeding, and infections. Sara has no qualms over using Anna's body to treat Kate's, and fully believes Anna is a willing donor. Brian, who is closer to Anna, has his own misgivings. Kate also shares a close relationship with Anna, and secretly feels guilty for the ways in which her illness has affected her siblings - for example, Jesse's dyslexia went unnoticed for years as she received all of her parents' attention, leading his grades to suffer. When Kate is fifteen, she goes into kidney failure. The 11-year-old Anna is required to donate one of her own, which will severely restrict her quality of life. With Jesse's help, Anna approaches attorney Alexander Campbell with intentions to sue her parents for medical emancipation. Campbell, whose covert epilepsy lends him sympathy to her predicament, decides to take her case pro bono. Representing Anna as her guardian ad litem, he files a suit for partial termination of parental rights. This immediately causes a rift between Anna and Sara, and Brian moves Anna into his fire station to separate them. Kate begins dating fellow cancer patient Taylor. After attending their hospital's prom for teen patients, they have sex for the first time, only for Taylor to pass away a few days later. A distraught Kate attempts suicide by overdosing on painkillers before Anna stops her.