EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES
LAURIE COKER'S REVIEW
RATING: D+
Having never been a fan of made-for-TV movies, I lost interest fairly quickly while watching ?Extraordinary Measures?, starring Harrison Ford and Brendon Fraser in a film about a couple, John and Aileen Crowley, who go to, yeah that?s right, ?extraordinary measures? to find a researcher who might have a cure for their two children's rare genetic disorder. Director Tom Vaughan offers a thorough, yet dull, tale of one man?s all out fight to save his children.
Fraser plays John Crowley, a successful business executive, who risks everything to convince Doctor Robert Stonehill (Ford) to take Stonehill?s research for a cure to Pompe disease, a debilitating degenerative disease, to fruition. As I understand it, Crowley?s efforts to save his children appeared in articles in the ?Wall Street Journal' and in a book, ?The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million ? And Bucked The Medical Establishment ? In A Quest To Save His Children? by Geeta Anand. The story, at its surface, is fascinating. How many parents wouldn?t want to try what Crowley tried? Still, as exciting and intriguing as it may appear, Vaughan ?s film is lackluster and mediocre at best ? playing out more like a Lifetime or Oxygen network movie.
Fraser is good; better than I expected really. I like him. Heck, I even like the idiotic ?George of the Jungle? and ? Encino Man. ? He does not always pick winners, but as Crowley , he is convincing, passionate and not too shabby projecting a variety of emotions. Perfect? Award winning? No, but then what actors are in Made for TV movies? I enjoyed the chemistry between he and Ford (Stonehill), but Ford plays the gruff doctor as Harrison Ford, playing, well, Harrison Ford as a stodgy old curmudgeon ? not much range. Truthfully, I don?t believe Ford has much range and except for in ? Mosquito Coast ,? I can?t say I have ever seen him truly act. Still for this level of film he is fine.
Even with these acceptable performances, storytelling without emotional peaks and valleys, simply remains flat. And in this case, the story lumbers along at such a snail?s pace, with so few highs or lows, I lost interest fairly early on. Instead of being on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next, I was checking my watch and pondering a potty break. Last year, when I watched ?Invictus,? I felt the same antsy angst. ?Extraordinary Measures?is a tale about a fight for life, a family?s decision to risk it all and the emotional battle between lifesaving science and money and we get- beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep ? the flatline, hardly a heartbeat.
Instead of showing us the deeper aspects of the story, like how the normal child in the family fairs through all of this, or strife in the marriage, and struggles with finances, we get long dull moments on airplanes and in car rides. Sure the thorny, Dr. Stonehill offers a touch of conflict in the story. He?s abrupt, curt, bordering on rude, and he has no money for his research. He works constantly, has incredible project, but hardly has the personality to woo pharmaceutical companies, so Crowley , who is not highly regarded by the scientific community, has to run point. Again, opportunities for building tension and conflict are brushed over like so much spilt salt off a table. What little science and research we are given is somewhat interesting, but the business dealings are far from earth moving, and except for Megan, played wonderfully by a delightful and talented Meredith Droeger, we are never given enough back or front story on which to put an emotional investment.
I hope I am not sounding like I did not care at all about if Crowley and his wife find a cure for Pompe, because I do care. Still, if we were to play this film for the powers behind the money to fund such research, I am afraid the audience might nod off. It is a testament to a healthcare need, but not to a degree that will move anyone to action and in that vein Vaughan wastes good talent and a wide audience. Crowley himself starts out working for a pharmaceutical company that calculates the profit margins it'll extract from its drugs over time as an important factor in what it chooses to research, and Vaughan can?t even do anything interesting with that. The family has one child unaffected by Pompe, at least not physically, and from his character we only get an overly sympathetic boy whose life revolves around his sick siblings.
I wanted to be moved by the PG rated ?Extraordinary Measures,? I hoped for good things from its cast, and I assumed I?d see high-quality, big-screen entertainment and Vaughan disappointed me on all counts. I can?t say it is a total waste. It does have a clear message, but the story would have played far better on television. I am placing a D+ in my grade book. Wait for it to show up on the small screen or on DVD.
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