'Extraordinary Measures' plucks heartstrings with a sharp edge

MOVIE REVIEW

Seattle, Portland and the Oregon coast provide the scenic backdrop for the third act of "Extraordinary Measures," which starts out as a standard disease-of-the-week movie but becomes more involving as it moves along.

The chief reason is the chemistry between Harrison Ford, playing cranky scientific genius Dr. Robert Stonehill, and Brendan Fraser as John Crowley, a distressed father who picks Stonehill to save his dying children. Both kids suffer from Pompe, a genetic disease that is usually fatal, and only Stonehill seems capable of finding a cure.

The two men's ability to overcome significant spats, and to forgive and work with each other, gradually becomes the core of the picture. While the opening scenes emphasize the family's adorability, the relationship between Stonehill and Crowley has more of an edge to it.

Crowley all but stalks Stonehill, pushing him to abandon his fatalism and consider fundraising outside the usual channels. The director, Tom Vaughan ("What Happens in Vegas"), builds gradually to a series of explosive confrontations.

"Inspired by true events," as the prologue claims, Robert Nelson Jacobs' heavily fictionalized script is based on a book, "The Cure," by Pulitzer Prize winner Geeta Anand. It certainly has its ups and downs.

"You don't bench me," bellows Ford when he's threatened with being removed from his job. "It's against the laws of nature." But while you're wincing at lines like that, you may find yourself succumbing to the actors' commitment to the movie's central question: Do you give in to a death sentence for your kids or do you risk turning fanatical as you fight back?

The teamwork of the actors may seem bland at first, but it grows into something spikier. Ford and Fraser tap into both their ability to generate movie-star charisma and their considerable talent for character acting.

The rest of the movie sometimes plays like a checklist of genre clichés. Vaughan brings some restraint to the familiar scenes of domestic quarreling (Keri Russell does her best with the undeveloped role of Fraser's worried wife), but you do wonder why these people make so few sacrifices to achieve their goals.

The parents live in heaven (mostly the Oregon coast), they furnish their homes spectacularly and money never seems to be a problem. In one scene, Crowley all but walks off his high-paying job, yet he doesn't get canned. While George Clooney did much the same thing in "Up in the Air," the episode made more sense in context.

Meanwhile, we know almost nothing about Stonehill's background, or why he turns testy when he's forced to compromise. Could it be the loud rock music he uses as inspiration? (The Band is a favorite.) It's left to Ford to fill in the blanks, and he's not always successful with creating a whole character.

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com