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The best compliment I can offer “Extraordinary Measures” is it isn’t a total disaster. One shouldn’t necessarily judge a movie by its promotional material, but all of the advertisements for this fact-based medical drama indicated a generic, manufactured sap-fest. A bit TV movie-ish, it certainly has its generic qualities and, as the first product of the newly minted CBS Films, it does give off a manufactured aura, but the sap, thankfully, is kept to a palatable minimum.
Based on journalist Geeta Anand’s book, itself inspired by events that occurred in the early 2000s, the film concerns a couple, John and Aileen Crowley (Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell), with two children ages 9 and 7, suffering from Pompe disease, a then-untreatable neuromuscular disorder that enlarges vital organs and usually kills its victims by age 8.
With his children’s conditions worsening, John quits his job at Bristol-Myers Squibb and teams up with hot-headed scientist Dr. Robert Stonehill (executive producer Harrison Ford), whose research might just save the kids’ lives.
There are flashes of the genuine emotional turmoil that befell this deeply burdened family and only the ending feels like a moving Hallmark card. The didactic nature of the movie, which uses every available opportunity to educate viewers on the disease, is problematic, but forgivable. Unfortunately, “Extraordinary Measures,” which opened in eighth place last weekend, is undone by the anything-but-extraordinary performances from its leads, who are miscast and mismatched.
Caught in another project beneath her talents, Russell is solid as usual, but Fraser and Ford are impossible to take seriously. One offers a sleepwalking, oafish update of his “Encino Man” persona, while the other uses his “Air Force One” rage as the only way to express his character’s feelings.
Shame on director Tom Vaughan for allowing so many phony exchanges between the two and shame on the producers for failing to realize a story like this needs little Hollywood tinkering.
Extraordinary Measures
PG
Two reels out of four
In area theaters now
Cold Souls
PG-13
Available Tuesday
Paul Giamatti has a ball playing a desperate version of himself in “Cold Souls,” a surrealist comedy about a shady company that aims to cure people’s emotional ills by extracting their souls — or, sometimes, implanting the souls of others.
The smart humor is dry, understated and a little tragic. Russian actress Dina Korzun gives a memorable supporting performance as Nina. The movie owes a big debt to Charlie Kauffman, but there’s room for more than one existential explorer behind the camera, and first-time writer/director Sophie Barthes announces herself as a talent to watch.
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