Extraordinary Measures - Movie Review

By Anne Brodie Jan 22, 2010, 8:24 GMT

Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford and Keri Russell star in "Extraordinary Measures" for CBS Films, the film division within CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS). The project, which wrapped principal photography in mid-June 2009, was the first film to go into production for CBS Films. Ford is also executive producer on the project. Tom Vaughan ("Starter for 10," "What Happens in Vegas") is directing. In the tradition of great inspirational dramas like ...more

Attention, Lorenzo’s Oil!  You’ve been cloned!  The 1992 fact-based medical drama with Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon follows a father desperate to save his terminally ill son by creating a new and revolutionary treatment.  Extraordinary Measures tells a similar story about a determined father seeking a cure for a disease that threatens the lives of his son and daughter, based on Geeta Anand’s book "The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million - And Bucked the Medical Establishment - in a Quest to Save His Children".  

Extraordinary Measures offers a bromantic twist as Harrison Ford’s scientific researcher and Brendan Fraser’s desperate father join forces to create a cure for Pompe, a deadly childhood disease.  Ford plays a scientist and Fraser a biotech entrepreneur united in their fight against the ticking clock.

The men couldn’t be more different – Dr. Bob Stonehill is a brilliant but miserable medical researcher with few social skills and an ugly temper, and John Crowley is a mild-mannered executive driven by love into action.  He believes so strongly in taking action that he manages to push his naturally reserved personality up several notches to raise research funds.

The enemy is Pompe, a type of muscular dystrophy that causes the internal organs to swell resulting in a painful and short life for its sufferers.  Children with Pompe generally live nine years.  Stonehill’s research is promising; he’s developing an enzyme that reduces the swelling and allows for a more normal, longer life for patients.
Crowley’s determination to save his children is impressive.  He leaves his cushy executive job in a pharmaceutical company to launch a research and development company with Stonehill.  Dramatic tension comes in Stonehill’s awkwardness, which hurts their efforts at every turn.  Crowley believes Stonehill’s on the way to developing a revolutionary drug, but he didn’t account for his disinclination to play ball with the money men. 

Stonehill eventually recognises there is possibility for transformation and redemption through helping others.  His work has been solitary and intellectual.  While Stonehill doesn’t necessarily ‘get’ the human component of lifesaving drugs, he’s compelled to wrestle genes and atoms, and that’s what Crowley needs.  But Stonehill’s brusque personality nearly scotches their efforts.  They’re chalk and cheese walking an emotional tightrope as the clock ticks against the children. 

Fraser does his best work so far in Extraordinary Measures, wading through a minefield of emotions - the fate of his children, dramatic business fluctuations, the personal dynamics of working with corporations, and most especially, the challenge of Stonehill threaten to undo him.  Fraser is terrifically compelling and sympathetic.
Keri Russell plays the long-suffering, teary wife.  She’s wasted in a part that anyone could have done, requiring a shadowy female presence that nags from the edges of the drama. 

The plotting is a tad predictable but the bond between the men is interesting.  Extraordinary Measures has a well-traveled, familiar arc but top notch performances.  The drama created by Stonehill’s behaviour ruffles our feathers but from the opening frames we know that he will be changed somehow by the end of the film.

The film is Harrison’s labour of love; he shepherded it to the screen over six years having a hand in every aspect.  Medical dramas can be hard to watch and can seem remote.  But Extraordinary Measures does its best to make the subject accessible, interesting, and moving.

35mm drama
Written by Robert Nelson Jacobs and Geeta Anand
Directed by Tom Vaughan
Opens: January 22
Runtime:
MPAA: Rated PG for thematic material, language and a mild suggestive moment
Country: USA
Language: English