'Extraordinary Measures' is a mediocre movie
Bill Goodykoontz • GNS
• January 22, 2010
The road to mediocrity is paved with good intentions.That's one way of looking at "Extraordinary Measures," a film based on the true story of John Crowley, a businessman who upended his life to try to find a cure for the rare, fatal genetic disorder two of his children suffered from.Director Tom Vaughan's film certainly means well. And it gets some things right, even when it might have taken an easier route. Yet the overall feel is one of a generic, feel-good drama, albeit one with Harrison Ford stomping around most of the time as if someone kicked him in the shins.Crowley (Brendan Fraser) is an Ivy League-educated businessman climbing the corporate ladder. He and his wife, Aileen (Keri Russell), have three children, two of whom suffer from Pompe disease. Both are confined to wheelchairs and require respirators. Megan (Meredith Droeger) is precocious and fearless; Patrick (Diego Velazquez) is much sicker. Both, however, are nearing the outer limits of their life expectancy.A scare with Megan prompts Crowley to take action. On a whim, he flies to Nebraska to talk with Robert Stonehill (Ford), a crusty loner who also happens to be the leading researcher in finding a drug to help control Pompe. Sure, Stonehill is confident he can help. He just needs money, and a lot of it.Crowley assures him he can raise the cash. He can't, not initially. But Crowley quits his lucrative job to create a company with Stonehill to produce the drug.At this point "Extra-ordinary Measures" shifts its focus from a family-based medical drama to a critique of the corporate establishment. Their start-up company runs into all manner of impediments, most of them predictable.Crowley and Stonehill work together, using each other's strengths to press on. But then their bond is tested. Will their work and their relationship survive? And is this also a buddy movie?Fraser is fine as Crowley, a very smart man driven to do what at first seem like stupid things. But who can question the motives of a man risking everything for his children? Russell isn't really around much, but when she is, it's mostly to support her husband or care for her kids. Droeger is appropriately adorable and spunky.Ford is so angry so much of the time that clips of his screaming "I already work around the clock!" in ads for the film have become a viral Internet sensation. Hard to say exactly what he was going for here, but he might have included a little anger management in his preparation for the role.Yet one thing Vaughan gets exactly right is the Crowleys' relationship with their children. Despite the severity of their illness, they're still kids. They are perfectly capable of misbehaving, and of being punished for it. Parents with sick kids don't typically treat them with kid gloves. They live with their children, and their children's illness, day and night. It's their reality, and most treat it as such. Most films take a sappier approach."Extraordinary Measures" does not. Had Vaughan applied the same focus to the rest of the film, it would have been all the more effective, and all the better, as well.
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