Portland couple John and Aileen Crowley (Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell) have two children with Pompe disease, a genetic anomaly that kills children at an early age. John works in the corporate world but is determined to help find a cure for Pompe. He contacts Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford), a researcher who has a theory on an enzyme treatment. Stonehill is underfunded by the University of Nebraska and a thorny personality that drives away colleagues and potential donors. John and Aileen raise money and eventually work with venture capitalists to create a business with Stonehill. Directed by Tom Vaughn (What Happens in Vegas).
Matt
Rating: 5 out of 10
This movie has an excellent story at its core — the unending love of a father determined by any means to save his children. Rather that focusing on the human element of the story, however, we get a corporate drama and very little of the most emotional story — children and families dealing with Pompe every day.
Ego got in the way of this movie. It’s based on a real story, but it was greatly altered for the script. Ford plays Stonehill, a fictional doctor who was actually Asian in real life and nothing like his counterpart. We follow John Crowley and Stonehill on their journey through creating a business for the cure, then get bought out and face corporate culture in a giant pharmaceutical company that pushes them around. Ford was the executive producer, and while his performance was strong and in some ways held the movie together, it was the wrong direction for the picture and the character was shoe-horned while detracting from the real story. It should have been about the father and the family and the struggles the children face. Instead, we are given very little storyline with the family and a great deal of business drama. This wasn’t an awful movie, but it was boring at times.
The Movie Brothers 
Hi’ya Matt, I can’t comment directly on Extraordinary measures but after Ford’s pathetic performances lately, I’m convinced his retirement is not only necessary but imminent. Have you seen Hollywood Homicide? Not even a two ton pickup pushed off the Capital Records building could impact his grandfatherly delivery of an aged detective paired with a young recruit in this fashion less “old dog learns from young dog” scenario. And less I mention Ford in what we can only pray will be the last installment of Indiana Jones EVER, well, I’d only be adding a pinch of salt to the wound that has become Harrison Ford instead of the whole darn shaker.
Yeah, maybe on second thought that’s a little harsh. I mean Mr. Ford gave us Bob Falfa and Han Solo, Rick Deckard and John Book, Dr. Richard Kimble and Jack Ryan, not to mention Indiana Jones (before the last one). I can forgive him for so very much and it truly saddens me that he has either lost it, is under directed and paid too much, or simply no longer garners the projects that demand something palpable from him. At 68, however, I CAN appreciate him showing up on set every morning but not without waning hope for one last hoorah.
I would agree that he’s in a funk as of late. He was solid in this movie, but he hasn’t been in anything lately that I really wanted to see — aside from Indy 4, which disappointed.
Hopefully he’s got a couple left in him.