“Extraordinary Measures,” starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser and inspired by true events, is pretty much a genre movie, adhering to familiar themes: one, parents facing the eminent death of their children who suffer from a fatal genetic disorder and two, mismatched partners – a quarrelsome, solitary scientist (Ford) and the earnest and emotional father (Fraser) – who set out to find a cure. Where this movie rises above its made-for TV predictability is the examination of how medical research is conducted and financed. US drug companies don’t develop new drugs unless they can be guaranteed lots of money in return. Few films illustrate so clearly the politics and competing agendas behind our for-profit health care.
John and his wife, Aileen (Keri Russell) do what they can to give Megan (Meredith Droeger) and Patrick (Diego Velazquez), who use wheelchairs and breathing tubes, a normal life. John’s research leads him to Robert Stonehill, a University of Nebraska professor, who thinks he has isolated an enzyme that has the potential to stop the progress of Pompe’s disease. They put together a start-up company, seeking venture capitalists support. Later they sell out to a biotechnology firm in Seattle. John’s desperate impatience is contrasted with Stonehill’s deliberate scientific methodology. We also see how a company’s rules for medical research and development can both help and hinder progress. “Extraordinary Measures” is touching tale of parental love and devotion, with Ford and Fraser’s performances clicking it up a notch from a made-for-TV melodrama. 1/23/10
1 comment:
Harrison Ford is an actor I admire. He has made some high-powered films that changed the course of movie making forever. This film is different and, I'm afraid, is a small market movie that will have a small audience and small profits to show for the producers. Do you think Ford has become the cranky old buzzard who is hard to live with like the character he portrays?
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