Extraordinary Measures

Harrison Ford usually brings the promise of action, thrills, big bangs, and in the case of the most recent Indiana, aliens. However, in this film, which he also produces, he brings the more human side of tragedy.

The story focuses on two children stricken with the terrible genetic disorder Pompe disease. Kids with this particular syndrome have a build up of sugar in their organs so that they cannot even throw bread to the ducks... and now the clock is running out to find a cure before the little girl's (Meredith Droeger) 9th birthday.

Brendan Fraser is the father who excels in sales, and enters the murky world of medicine and all of the profitability calculations that the private healthcare system in the US creates. Sadly, he convinces much less than he did as the politician in Crash, or even the caveman in California Man.

The film is moving, tears will be shed as you watch, and Harrison as the grumpy university lecturer genius with the theoretical cure and massive ego is worth buying a ticket for. Yet despite the absolute worthiness of the subject matter as a film, the performances do come across a bit flat from even the wonderful Keri Russell in the role of the children's mother. Nonetheless, a valiant effort to show the evils of capitalism taking over the medical profession and what should be a search for a cure is actually a counting of likely profits. Chilling.