Just watched this true life drama starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser at the theatre with my friend who works there. Not the kind we normally go to see but since this film had only one afternoon showing time for the days of this week, we felt it was worth a look. The leads were pretty good for the characters they played and provided enough drama to make their admiration for each other clear despite some disagreements. The two handicapped kids of Fraser's character provided both humor and some genuine touching moments that didn't go overboard. Also fine was Keri Russell as Brandan's wife and Courtney B. Vance as another parent with similarly diseased kids who tells his family's story to a captive audience. My favorite scenes are those involving Ford's doctor character constantly playing classic rock songs in his lab to the consternation of everyone else there. Extraordinary Measures is perhaps not a great drama, but it provides enough moments that make this worthy entertainment.

In Extraordinary Measures Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell play the parents of three children, two of whom suffer from Pompe disease, a genetic disorder which has them confined to wheelchairs and which will kill them in short order. Fraser is unwilling to let this happen without a fight, so he enlists the help of cranky scientist Harrison Ford who is following an inspirational line of research but without any real funding. The two go into partnership, but this brings them face to face with the pharmaceutical industry and big money and the problems this brings with it.

Stephen King introduced the expression SSDD (same sh*t, different day) which can be adapted here to same story, different disease, for we have seen much of this before in Lorenzo's Oil. Having said that, Extraordinary Measures is never less than interesting, and is mostly involving, suspenseful and emotional - a lot is at stake, and we never forget it.

Fraser is as good as he's ever been, and makes up for a series of roles where he has been no more than adequate. Ford plays against type fairly well, delivering an irascible and sometimes unreasonable curmudgeon of a scientist. The rest of the cast are good, too.

This is an enjoyable, interesting and involving movie.

"Extraordinary Measures" is one of those "feel-good", "inspirational" films which is actually feel-good and inspirational but in a very generic kind-of-way.

Brendan Fraser awkwardly stars as a businessman who desperately hopes that "they" will find a cure for Pompe disease, which two of his children are dying from. As you would expect, he stays up late researching trying to find the latest advances. This teams him up with Harrison Ford, an unpersonable scientist, who also provides the few comic relief moments.

Based on a true story, but in such a way that although the overall story may come from real life, all the events shown are surely fictional. It's dramatic when we need it to be and things work out when we need them to - way too formulaic and tidy for real life. They tell us some of the science behind the cure, which is of course nonsense, but it's supposed to get the audience more invested in what's happening; however, it's just a reminder that this is Hollywood not real life.

Let me go back to the beginning, "Extraordinary Measures" is feel-good and inspirational, and if you like those types of movies, this one plays out exactly as it's supposed to. You'll get swept up into the story and cry when you're supposed to. Everything is right on cue.