Hayden Christensen is Clayton Beresford Jr, a billionaire Manhattan philanthropist with a dodgy ticker.

He's head-over-heels with Samantha (Alba), the doe-eyed personal assistant of his coldly controlling mother Lilith (Olin), who's unaware of the illicit relationship.

When a donor becomes available, she wants her personal heart specialist Arliss Howard to perform the transplant because - "his hands have been inside presidents."

However, Clayton insists his lunchtime fishing partner and surgeon buddy Jack Harper (Howard) gets the gory gig...despite four malpractice suits lodged against him.

The moment of truth arrives when, moments after Samantha and Clayton have tied the knot and are consummating the nuptials, his buzzer goes off informing him a heart is ready.

It appears to be a routine operation but the anaesthetic mysteriously fails... and Clayton is left paralysed yet able to feel every sensation as his rib cage is jacked open.