Extraoridnary Measures

Like a lot of inspirational movies "inspired by true stories", Extraordinary Measures plays loose with the facts of the story it's based on. We meet John (Brendan Fraser) and Aileen Crowley (Keri Russell), a married couple with three children facing a crisis. Two of their kids, eight-year-old Meagan (Meredith Droeger) and six-year-old Patrick (Diego Velazquez) have a rare and deadly illness called Pompe disease. John works as an executive at a big business company, but spends most of his time tirelessly searching for information on the Internet for information on the disease, and for a possible cure, of which there is none. The average life expectancy of a child with Pompe is nine years, so he is running out of time.

During his search for information, John comes across an article about a medical scientist who is working on a cure, but can't find funding for his research. In real life, that scientist was Dr. Yuan-Tsong Chen, but since there are no Asian male actors working in Hollywood capable of having above the title status in a medical drama, Dr. Chen has become Dr. Robert Stonehill. He's played by Harrison Ford, a marketable name. Dr. Stonehill is a bit of a wild card. He's reckless, he has a short temper, he doesn't listen to authority, and he likes to blast rock music while he works at odd hours, which annoys his fellow scientists. But, John sees something in his theories, and thinks he could find a cure with the proper funding. John gathers up the money Stonehill needs, and the two go into business together.

Despite the family crisis angle, and the race against time to find a cure, Extraordinary Measures is somewhat laid back. Like a lot of movies I've reviewed recently, there's a lack of emotion that prevents the audience from getting involved. Even though little Meagan and Patrick are fighting for their lives, the movie does not emphasize this. Meagan has a medical scare early on that sends her to the hospital, but after that, she's a pretty happy and plucky little girl. She spouts off one-liners like a pro, and acts more like a standard Hollywood movie child, than a girl facing her own mortality. Poor Patrick is barely touched upon in the film. His big scene revolves around the fact that the disease has made his body so weak, he can no longer throw bits of bread to feed the ducks with the rest of his family. The kids are not so much characters in the story, but manipulations of the plot.

That leaves us the adults. They're certainly all played by fine actors. Ford is obviously an old pro, and Fraser and Russell are both underrated as actors when it comes to drama. But here, they all seem to simply be filling the roles, or giving just enough that the material requires. We never get a sense of the relationship between Fraser and Russell, as all of their scenes are based around worrying about their kids. The fact that Russell is pushed into the background once Ford's character enters the plot doesn't help matters. Speaking of Ford, his portrayal of Dr. Stonehill can best be described as predictable. He's a gruff, cold-hearted cynic whose heart slowly melts the more time he spends with the Crowleys and their adorable dying children. He plays the role well enough, but there's nothing that comes through in his performance. We learn so little about Stonehill, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire performance was based solely on a brief character description given to Ford by screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs (The Water Horse).

The movie itself is just as sketchy as the main characters, and that's just the problem. The whole thing feels like it's been clean and sanitized, and often feels like a not very memorable made-for-TV movie being projected on the screen. Perhaps this is the influence of the film's distributor, CBS Studios. Whatever the case, the movie feels toothless instead of engaging. We can't get behind the thinly developed characters, and the story is so paint-by-numbers, it never gets off the ground. As Extraordinary Measures played out, and obstacles kept on flying in the way of John and Dr. Stonehill, it felt like director Tom Vaughan (What Happens in Vegas) was stretching things out, rather than staying true to the facts. I grew restless when I began to realize that the movie had no intention of really explaining how the cure came to be (very little time is actually spent within the lab), but would focus on mawkish melodrama.

I'm sure the real story could make a compelling movie, but this is not it. This is one of those movies that you never feel reaching you emotionally, despite its best efforts. If good intentions were all it took, this film would be a winner. Unfortunately, it takes so much more. It takes a lot of stuff that Extraordinary Measures just doesn't have.

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