{"id":219061,"date":"2010-01-21T14:46:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-21T19:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:magazine.nd.edu,2005:News\/14430"},"modified":"2010-01-21T14:46:14","modified_gmt":"2010-01-21T19:46:14","slug":"movie-review-extraordinary-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/219061","title":{"rendered":"Movie review: Extraordinary Measures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"image-left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/magazine.nd.edu\/assets\/20608\/extraordtrailer.jpg\" title=\"extraordtrailer.jpg\" alt=\"extraordtrailer.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Extraordinary Measures<\/em>, starring Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford, offers the inspirational story of Notre Dame Law School alumnus John Crowley&#8217;s determined fight to advance the medical research needed to save the two youngest of his three children. The children are afflicted with Pompe disease, a rare genetic metabolic disorder that causes progressive muscle weakness.<\/p>\n<p>In the PG-rated movie, with the clock ticking as his children\u2019s health deteriorates, Crowley (Fraser) reaches out to Dr. Robert Stonehill (Ford, playing a composite of several real scientists), who has the ideas but not the resources needed to develop the life-saving medication. Drawing on Crowley\u2019s business savvy and Stonehill\u2019s scientific genius, the two launch their own a biotech company, though the headstrong men battle each other as much as they do medical obstacles along the way.<\/p>\n<ul id=\"callout\">\n<li>Related article<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/magazine.nd.edu\/news\/9879\">Taking matters into his own hands<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The most commonly expressed reaction to the trailer for Extraordinary Measures is that the film looks more like a disease-of-the-week TV movie than a theatrical motion picture, thus implying that it must be formulaic and mawkish. And Extraordinary Measures is unquestionably formulaic in its coverage of Crowley&#8217;s efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, the more complex edges of the medical battle at home and in laboratories were smoothed over to fit the story into a Hollywood package. The narrative is structured by such familiar conventions as looming deadlines, reductive obstacles and profit-obsessed Big Pharma villains (until they&#8217;re suddenly not so bottom-lined focused, in order to set up the happy ending). However, Extraordinary Measures does admirably succeed in avoiding the saccharine tone of a clich\u00e9d Lifetime movie.<\/p>\n<p>John Crowley has said that the film perfectly captures the emotional spirit of his family&#8217;s plight, and the level of humor in the film effectively balances the melodrama inherent to the tale. Credit for the film&#8217;s sincerity should also go to the lead actors&#8217; star charisma, even if neither is at his best here. Fraser&#8217;s sizable affability effectively transmits Crowley&#8217;s devotion, though he strains to display the father&#8217;s anguish.<\/p>\n<p>Ford draws productively on his beloved persona as the irascible maverick, yet he awkwardly flits between two acting modes, deadpan and raging. While the A-list stars&#8217; presence alone raises the film&#8217;s profile above that of a television project (as does the experience of seeing it on a big screen) the film&#8217;s target audience does have to be one that appreciates the kind of entertainment implied by the trailer, as the movie lacks any edginess or cynicism.<\/p>\n<p>In that sense, <em>Extraordinary Measures<\/em> is actually rare both for Hollywood films, which these days are primarily directed at teenage boys, and television, which covets the 18-34 demographic. For that, as well as for its exhibition of John Crowley&#8217;s extraordinary efforts, this film should be welcomed.  While it is intended as Hollywood entertainment, it is based on a father\u2019s very real struggles to save his children.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><em>Christine Becker is an associate professor in the Department of Film, Television and Theatre who specializes in the history of film and television. She is the author of<\/em> It\u2019s the Pictures that Got Small, <em>an analysis of the role of Hollywood film stars in 1950\u2019s television.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Extraordinary Measures, starring Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford, offers the inspirational story of Notre Dame Law School alumnus John Crowley&#8217;s determined fight to advance the medical research needed to save the two youngest of his three children. The children are afflicted with Pompe disease, a rare genetic metabolic disorder that causes progressive muscle weakness. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}