Salt Lake Tribune Review

It's a tragedy that Megan and Patrick Crowley suffer from a debilitating genetic illness, Pompe disease, a form of muscular dystrophy that weakens their muscles to the point where they cannot move or even breathe without mechanical assistance.


It's an injustice that, because Pompe is comparatively rare, pharmaceutical companies don't think it's profitable enough to push research for a cure.


And it's a crying shame that the story of the Crowley kids' dad, John Crowley -- and how he worked tirelessly through the worlds of science and business to find a cure -- could be turned into such a forgettable by-the-numbers drama as "Extraordinary Measures."


Brendan Fraser plays John Crowley, who as the film starts is a marketing executive for a large pharmaceutical firm, living in Portland, Ore., with his loving wife, Aileen (Keri Russell), and their three children. Two of those kids have Pompe disease, whose victims seldom live past 9 years old -- and Megan (Meredith Droeger), the older of the two, is 8.


Reading up on Pompe research in his off hours, Crowley comes upon the pioneering work done by a Dr. Robert Stonehill. So Crowley flies to Nebraska to enlist Stonehill (Harrison Ford) in a biotech start-up, but discovers Stonehill's temper and quirky work habits (which, in this movie, means staying up late while listening to '60s rock at top volume) will be as much a challenge as conquering the disease.


"Extraordinary Measures" marks the first venture of CBS Films, a new theatrical-film unit of the venerable TV network -- which may be why it feels like a formulaic made-for-TV movie.


The script, adapted from Geeta Anand's book by Robert Nelson Jacobs (who also adapted Chocolat , The Shipping News and The Water Horse ), is littered with large chunks of expository dialogue to explain Pompe disease, enzymes, venture-capital strategy and FDA drug trials. Director Tom Vaughan, who made the charming "Starter for 10" and the awful "What Happens in Vegas," settles on a repetitive formula of digesting those chunks by having Fraser shouting at people -- either Stonehill over his methods or a pharmaceutical exec (Jared Harris) over drug-trial objectivity. Meanwhile, Ford toggles between two emotional settings: gruff grumbling and gruff yelling.


If there is a saving grace to "Extraordinary Measures," aside from the built-in sympathy engendered by an often-terminal disease, it's little Meredith Droeger's performance as the plucky Megan. Her portrayal of the no-nonsense girl, battling a disease with courage but a lack of pity, provides a bracing dose of authenticity the rest of this maudlin movie could have used.

-- Sean P. Means

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