Extraordinary Measures

True story shows what father will do for his children

CBS Films Inc.
BRENDAN FRASER (left) and Harrison Ford in “Extraordinary Meaures.”

“Extraordinary Measures” has that made-for-TV-movie feel about it, at least initially.
But as this engrossing film progresses, it fleshes out into a truly inspiring story. Yes, it is based on a true story, although certainly the truth has been stretched.
Brendan Fraser is John Crowly, a successful advertising executive, who with his wife, played by Keri Russell, have two children with Pompe disease, a genetic anomaly that kills children by the time they turn 9.
He has a good job and it’s a good thing, because his children cost up to $40,000 a month in medical costs.
But when his daughter nearly dies, Crowly walks out of a high-pressure client meeting and flies to the home of a scientist who does research on the disease, played by Harrison Ford.
Ford is a sort of gruff, no-nonsense guy who listens to loud classic rock while working.
Fraser’s character knows that Ford’s character, Dr. Robert Stonehill, is doing research in enzymes that could not only prolong his children’s lives but improve the quality as well.
Fraser, as an advertising veteran, knows how to play hardball and do what needs to be done to get his way and get the job done. He quits his job to work with Stonehill to get the proper funding.
Stonehill doesn’t like the persistent questioning about his research and walks out of a meeting of potential benefactors. Crowley tells him the facts of life, that if he wants the millions to do research, he is going to have to compromise and make nice.
Eventually, Fraser’s character gets them in bed with a big pharmaceutical company that demands to know what the profit prospects are.
There are some highs, but many lows as research takes a backseat to profits and marketing.
Less-talented scientists are quick to poke holes in Ford’s theories.
At one point, the Fraser character brings his wife and children suffering with the disease and other families to an emotional meeting to show these business executives and hardened scientists just how devastating the disease can be.
While the scientists have been doing research, they have actually never seen a wheelchair-bound child living with the disease or see parents coping with the deterioration of their children, waiting for inevitable death.
There’s a great mix of politics and humanity in this film. For every step forward, there appears to be two steps back.
Fraser places a lien on his house to get more money. He seemingly stops at nothing to save his kids.
He plays an attentive and loving dead. It is evident throughout the film. In the opening credits, he is racing, after missing his bus, to get to the center where his daughter is having her eighth birthday party. If all goes as expected, this will be her last.
This is another one of those movies where people roll up their sleeves and work. They must contend with roadblocks and disappointment along the way.
Ford does an admiral job playing against the typecast of the nerdy scientists, although he is a tad absent minded. (He has a hard time getting the cord back into the telephone.)
And Fraser, who has played a lot of cartoonish characters in the past, really nails it as a concerned dad and ruthless executive who makes those attributes work.
The title really tells the tale and it is worth seeing.

EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES • Directed by Tom Vaughan • Written by Robert Nelson Jacobs and Geeta Anand • Runtime: 106 minutes • 3 stars out of 4

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Swedes do it again with ‘Girl With Dragon Tattoo’

NOOMI RAPACE and Michael Nyquist in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

Those Swedes sure know how to make a good film.
Those Americans know how to remake good Swedish films.
Remember “Let the Right One In?”
Now we have “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” or the original title “Män som hatar kvinnor.”
It has since been Americanized and was recently released to theaters. I haven’t seen that version, but the original 2009 Swedish version can be seen right now at Netflix streaming or on Amazon Instant Video. (If you are at work, turn your monitor so your boss can’t see what you are doing.)
This has almost a film noir atmosphere, with more than one mystery that needs cleared up.
Mikeal Blomkvist, played by Michael Nyquist, is a celebrated journalist for Millennium magazine. He loses a libel case brought by a shady industrialist, Hans-Erik Wennerstrom.
The magazine must pay damages, but unlike in America, there is an apparent criminal penalty as well. Blomkvist must serve a short prison term.
But that’s a few months off. In the meantime, he is approached by an aide to frail but wealthy Henrik Vanger. The Vanger family lives in a bunch of homes on a remote island connected by a bridge.
Blomkvist visits the 80-something man who tells about a 40-year mystery involving his niece, Harriet. She disappeared at age 16 on a day that an accident closed the one bridge leaving the island.
There has been no trace of her since. There is a good possibility a family member murdered her.
Wennerstrom, knowing he has little time left, wants Blomkvist to investigate the situation.
Why the old man hires a journalist rather than a detective we’ll never know. But the libel trial made big TV news and it looks like solving this case could redeem Blomkvist.
Meanwhile, there is this punkish, waifish girl, played by Noomi Rapace, whose own life is a mystery. Her life is sordid, just in the fact she must submit to a parole officer on a regular basis.
But her old parole officer had a stroke and her knew one is hardly a nice guy. He has control of her money and if she wants some, she must submit to his sexual advances.
Well, until early on when she turns the tables on the guy.
She is an enigma. She’s a subdued computer hacker. As the film progresses, we learn more about her background.
Meanwhile, she hacks Blomkvist’s computer, offering a clue to his investigation.
Soon they are working together in this misty, engrossing and suspenseful story.
One person who saw the film suggested the ending was similar to “Silence of the Lambs” and I agree, to a point.
Like many Swedish films, it is difficult to pigeonhole just what kind of movie it is. Like I said, it does have some film noir and could have easily had its genesis in a 1940s crime drama.
And unlike the new American version, you can watch it right now through streaming. It is long, but the movie never drags.

GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO • Directed by Niels Arden Oplev • Written by Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg • In Swedish with subtitles • Runtime: 152 minutes • Rated R for violence, sex • 3 1/2 stars out of 4

Perry Mason sans Raymond Burr

When most people think of the fictional lawyer character Perry Mason, they think of the celebrated CBS TV series which ran from 1957 to 1966 and starred Raymond Burr.
The character was developed in the 1920s by Earl Stanley Gardner, a lawyer himself who was more interested in using his knowledge of the law to write pulp novels.
His books became so popular a series of movies were produced in the mid 1930s, with various actors playing Mason and his secretary, Della Street.
These films are far removed from the Burr Perry Mason. In one film, Perry is behind his desk one morning, suffering a hangover from the night before. In another, he marries Della. Paul Drake, the detective who worked for Perry, was a comic foil nicknamed "Spudsy." Far from the no-nonsense Drake played later on TV by William Hopper.
After the movies, Gardner continued writing his books, using a dictating machine. He disavowed a radio show that aired in the 1950s which had a soap opera feeling to it. So much so some of the characters spun off into the soaper "The Edge of Night."
In September 1957 the most famous Perry Mason reincarnation debuted on TV. The series ended in September 1966 after being placed opposite "Bonanza," which was broadcast in color.
As soon as the series left the air, attempts started to bring it back. In September 1973 "New Perry Mason" starring Monte Markham in the title role made its debut. People wouldn't accept the younger, hipper Markham in the role and it was pulled in January 1974.
Burr returned as Perry Mason in a series of TV films in the 1980s that ended after Burr's 1993 death.
Now there is talk of a new Perry Mason theatrical film, taking place in the 1930s. (The TV shows were always contemporary to the times.)
So for you enjoyment, I present some Perry Mason movies and TV shows, none of which feature Raymond Burr. While "New Perry Mason" is similar to the Burr series, the old movies are far different. Here you can watch four Mason movies from the 30s and all of the "New Perry Mason" episodes with the exception of "The Case of the Ominous Oath" and "Deadly Deeds." Take a look!


THE CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE



THE CASE OF THE HOWLING DOG




THE CASE OF THE LUCKY LEGS



THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS




THE CASE OF THE TORTURED TITAN (MONTE MARKHAM TV SERIES)



THE CASE OF THE PERILOUS PEN



CASE OF THE TELLTALE TRUNK



CASE OF THE WISTFUL WIDOWER



CASE OF THE HOROSCOPE HOMICIDE



CASE OF THE VIOLENT VALLEY



CASE OF THE MURDERED MURDER



CASE OF THE FURIOUS FATHER



CASE OF THE CAGEY CAGER




CASE OF THE FRENZIED FEMINIST



CASE OF THE PRODIGAL PROPHET



CASE OF THE JAILED JUSTICE



CASE OF THE SPURIOUS SPOUSE



BONUS: JUDD FOR THE DEFENSE: TEMPEST IN A TEXAS TOWN

"Spurious Spouse" included Carl Betz, an actor best known as the dad on the "Donna Reed Show." A year after the orignal Perry Mason TV series ended, Betz himself played an attorney, Clinton Judd. He took on topics like abortion and homosexuality. Here is a rare episode of that series.



Hopefully this will keep you entertained on cold winter nights or hot summer mornings or whatever.

The Conspirator

You can feel the times in Redfords’ ‘Conspirator’

ROBIN WRIGHT and Peter Goldmark in "The Conspirator.

There is a hugely realistic aura about the film “The Conspirator.”
You may have missed it during its brief theatrical run.
That’s OK. With its Masterpiece Theater, drawing-room style and washed-out color, the big screen isn’t a real necessity in this Robert Redford-directed historical film.
The movie opens with a slap-dash chronology of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater. Quickly seven men and a woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the president, vice president, secretary of state and others in one attack.
Among those arrested is Mary Surratt, whose boarding house was the site where conspirators met. Among them were Lincoln killer John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt, Mary’s son.
We watch as the barn Booth is trapped in is set afire and how a soldier shoots him to death through a crack in the barn.
But John Surratt is on the run. The country is incensed about the death of Lincoln and obsessed with conspiracies. The newspapers are full of stories of possible death squads and poisoning of water supplies.
Mary Surratt, by default, is arrested for conspiracy in Lincoln’s death and placed on trial by a military court.
She is not permitted to see evidence against her. She cannot speak in her own defense.
Her attorney is novice Frederick Aiken, 28, (played by James McAvoy), who has never brought a case to court before.
Robin Wright plays Mrs. Surratt, who is trying to protect her son while saving her life.
Aiken is initially like the rest of the nation, more interested in punishing the conspirators than making certain the trial is fair and impartial. After meeting with Mrs. Surratt and he witnesses how the deck is stacked against her, he slowly comes around to her side.
Everyone else is quick to want the whole episode over with and anyone remotely connected punished. Aiken is questioned by his girlfriend, played by Alexis Bledel. She drops him because she can’t understand why Aiken, a Civil War hero, would spend so much time defending Surratt.
Evan Rachel Wood does a nice job playing Anna Surratt, Mary’s daughter. She believes in her mother but is disgusted with the rest of the world.
The scenes are well laid out. You get a sense of the dusty, dirty environment that was 1865. You can feel the era.
But it needs an injection of humanity. Who exactly are these people? Why do they act the way they do?
This is more a history regurgitation than a real movie.
It isn’t bad. Redford is able to build suspense at beginning, chronicling the attacks on Lincoln and the others.
Ditto for the end, as we learn what happens to Mary Surratt in a sad twist of fate.
The movie really gives you a sense of the times, how frightened people are, how civil rights were thrown out the window.
Redford could have bumped up the energy level a bit more. If you like PBS, you will like this fine.

THE CONSPIRATOR Directed by Robert Redford Written by James Solomon Runtime: 122 minutes Rated PG-13 for violent content 2 1/2 stars out of 4