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