Inspired by an incredible true story, the CBS Films docudrama portrays one father's desperate quest to save his children from succumbing to a rare life-threatening genetic disorder. Working-class father John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) is finally on the fast track to corporate success when his two young children, Megan and Patrick, are diagnosed with Pompe disease -- a condition that prevents the body from breaking down sugar. In time, it disables the heart and the muscles, ultimately resulting in
death. With the support of his wife, Aileen (Keri Russell), John ditches his career and teams with unconventional specialist Dr. Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford) to found a bio-tech company and develop a cure in time to save the lives of Megan and Patrick. As Dr. Stonehill works tirelessly to prove the theories that made him the black sheep of the medical community, a powerful bond is forged between the two unlikely allies. Still, their greatest struggle is yet to come. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Harrison Ford still retains enough of his old movie star magic to ramp up the electricity a bit when he's onscreen, but this only makes you want to see him do something that makes better use of his gifts. Brendan Fraser just seems to grow bigger over the
It's about as dramatically taut as your garden-variety board meeting. And it makes you realize that jerking a tear or two isn't necessarily a bad thing for a filmmaker to do, if it at least keeps your audience awake.
At first glance, it feels like one of those inspirational weepies TV used to churn out, with a seasoned actress like Elizabeth Montgomery playing the flinty heroine.
Extraordinary Measures strives to tug at our heartstrings, and educate us on a little publicized disease, but it ends up feeling like a drug itself - manufactured using artificial chemicals by technicians in a cold lab.
If nothing else, this movie arrives just in time to fan the flames a bit more during the heated health care debates, an every man for himself, survival for sale health care from hell thriller.
Easy to root for a loving father fighting through the system, but Extraordinary Measures shamelessly piles on the sentimentality and disregards the real work of the many scientists dedicated to fighting this disease for years.
If this this sounds like movie-of-the-week fodder, it is, but Extraordinary Measures hits all the right dramatic notes without tipping into sentimentality.
A touching story inspired by true events. A timely subject. Two high-profile actors in Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford. Sadly, it all adds up to an extraordinary bore.
Harrison Ford is the clichà (C) of a scientist who cares more for equations than humans, and works to atrocious rock music. The child actors are cloying in their cuteness. A serious subject drowned by sentimentality.
Its an okay movie. Ford and Fraser are good strong leads with a good supporting cast. The storyline is okay and although based on a true story i dont think its really a best movie maker, should just of stayed for tv movie.
its a nice enough heart warming, if not inspiring movie of one dads motivation to cure his
kids,but this movie is only 'okay' and is okay enough to watch on a sunday afternoon.
January 21, 2010
Film Crazy
Super Reviewer
Taking a break from trying to amuse the kids with forgettable family films, Brendan Fraser is trying to save the kids with tolerable family drama.The first feature made by CBS Films, Extraordinary Measures is largely bereft of the mawkish excess of recent kids-with-cancer slog Matching Jack. Sick children and Crowley's
(Fraser) selfless wife Aileen (Keri Russell) often disappear, leaving us with starstruck Fraser and Harrison Ford arguing, or fighting the power. Jared Harris is suitably terse as a cold-hearted pharmaceutical "suit", yet professionally crabby Ford ensures that those on the front line of medicine aren't whitewashed as altruistic saints.This is terribly tense - or draining, even with Fraser's constant effort to prove he's a serious performer by bugging his eyes in a serious manner. But being unaffected by the prime objective is impossible.
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