Extraordinarily Plain

Extraordinary Measures

Director: Tom Vaughan

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford, Keri Russell

MPAA - Rated PG for thematic material, language and a mild suggestive moment.

A warm-hearted film that fails to be the wrenching drama it wanted to be, “Extraordinary Measures” is instead a nice family film the never really takes off. I enjoyed some of this film but I would have never seen is had it not been for Harrison Ford’s title billing, and if I had seen it without Harrison Ford I would have shut it off half way through. Harrison Ford is really the only reason to watch the movie, and even then it wasn’t the most interesting of his films.

This was a film that needed to delve deeper into character development and not spend as much time on showing story line pieces. The characters are so thinly put together we have to focus on who the actor is to get any depth out of the characters.



Brendan Fraser for instance plays a character similar to himself, a nice guy who cares about his family – I guess passionately cares, but it is hard to tell – and he stays true to that character the whole movie, but it is never that interesting. Harrison Ford plays an eccentric professor and doctor who develops a treatment for a rare disease. He plays country music extremely loudly ah he tests his theories, and he yells a lot at anyone who does things differently from him. Ford is entertaining, but he doesn’t get enough screen time to develop anything interesting, and we never get to find out why he is such a pain in the butt.
Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell play John and Aileen Crowley, the parents of two children afflicted with Pompe disease. This is a rare disease and there is no cure. Both children have a life expectancy of one more year and so Fraser’s character seeks out Dr. Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford) who may have a treatment that will save the kid’s lives.

The film tries to be a movie about a family and a movie about two men developing a treatment and a movie about kids overcoming adversity ( I think that is all). Instead of masterfully combining the three genres we get a hodge-podge mish-mash that kind of skims the surface of all three genres; never taking enough time for the audience to get a grasp on the message. Do we feel bad for the kids? Yes, but we only see them for a minute and then we are on to another scene. Do we connect with the parents who are desperately trying to save their children? Yes, but the fact that these parents are millionaires and can afford all the medical treatments for their children plus whatever else is needed does little to help us feel the desperation. Do we feel for the cranky doctor who is on the verge of a medical breakthrough but is socially inept and unappreciated? The check for 16 million dollars says “NO!”

And that is the problem with “Extraordinary Measures”, it is interesting enough to watch, but it fails so badly at greatness. This movie needs a focus and character development, then it might be worth a second go. For now it is a mundane film that is mildly entertaining and kind of makes us feel warm and fuzzy. It is a 6.9 out of 10.

Sex/Nudity – 2 out of 10 - a husband and wife kiss and make out on a couch and are interrupted by a nurse.

Violence/ Gore – 0 out of 10 –

Profanity – 4 out of 10 - 25 obscenities – Son of a “B”, the “S” word, and so on - plus a few religious exclamations.