Extraordinary Measures (DVD)

John and Aileen Crowley (Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell) are living in the terrible position of having two children with Pompe Disease, a condition that causes their bodies to slowly wither away. The doctors can’t do anything, and merely sympathise with the Crowleys and tell them there’s no way the children will survive into their teenage years.

Unwilling to accept that, John impulsively heads off to Nebraska to see Dr. Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford), who he believes is the closest to finding a treatment for the disease. However Stonehill’s ideas are only theoretical and he doesn’t have the money to bring them to fruition (partly because he’s rather volatile and prone to alienating everyone who comes into contact with him). Robert sets up a foundation with the aim of raising the money to fund Stonehill’s work, which soon leads the father and the doctor to set themselves up as a pharmaceutical company, even though neither has ever brought a drug to market before.

That synopsis makes Extraordinary Measures sound like a TV movie of the week, and that’s exactly what it is, except with bigger star names. It is undoubtedly an inspiring story, but it’s told in such a join the dots, insipid way that it sucks out any emotional resonance the film might have had. This sort of movie needs to get you invested in the characters, but while John’s struggle is noble, nobody in the movie seems like a real person, instead inhabiting the world of film cliché. Extraordinary Measures never surprises or does anything other than tick the boxes, with each person only allowed a couple of character traits, so for example Harrison Ford has studious and angry, and Brendan Fraser gets pained and determined.

Everyone obviously has their heart in the right place, but the film is so valedictory to John Crowley’s undeniably impressive achievement that it never digs deep enough into the story to really make it worthwhile. It results in a film that’s okay, and makes you want to applaud the real people involved, even while their movie counterparts are far less involving. It’s also vaguely frustrating that a film about the search for a cure to a fatal disease spends so little time really talking about that. You can understand they want to concentrate on the human side, but it results in a caricature of science that does a disservice to the truth of how they found the treatment.

The small selection of special features includes quite a few deleted scenes, which add little other than making Keri Russell’s character seem less sympathetic (which is probably why they were chopped out). There are also two featurettes, the first of which is ‘Meet John Crowley’, in which the real father talks about his struggle, as well as giving a bit more info about Pompe Disease. It’s a short but interesting look at a man who really did make a difference. Finally there’s ‘Extraordinary Measures: The Power To Overcome’, which is a more typical behind-the-scenes offering, where the cast and crew talk about the film and pay tribute to the real characters they’re playing. However rather like the movie, it leaves you with the impression that the true story is more interesting than the movie.

Overall Verdict: A truly inspiring story turned into a clichéd movie of the week that never really involves the viewer.

Special Features:
Deleted Scenes
‘Meet John Crowley’ Featurette
‘Extraordinary Measures: The Power To Overcome’ Featurette

Reviewer: Tim Isaac