CityLife

Extraordinary Measures

Extraordinary Measures

Television schedules are clogged with inspirational true stories of parents fighting to save their children from terrible, life-threatening illnesses.

These made-for-TV dramas shamelessly manipulate the emotions, wringing out tears from the suffering as they fight for their lives, often against a backdrop of indifference from the medical community.

Thankfully, the parents’ tenacity usually leads to some dramatic scientific breakthrough that offers a glimmer of hope.

Extraordinary Measures is one of those well-intentioned real-life battles against adversity, that would surely have been consigned to the small screen were it not for a starry, A-list cast, including an executive producer’s role for Harrison Ford.

Tom Vaughan’s film feels longer than 106 minutes – and the script, based on the book The Cure by Geeta Anand, lacks a rousing resolution.

John Crowley (Fraser) is a rising star in corporate America with a beautiful wife Aileen (Russell) and three children - of which the two youngest are born with the rare and degenerative Pompe Disease, which weakens muscles and causes the body to shut down gradually.

His demanding job keeps him from his loved ones, but the money it brings is vital to meet the spiralling medical costs.

When the stress finally becomes too great, John leaves his job to chase a cure with unconventional scientist, Dr Robert Stonehill (Ford, pictured).

But, research takes time and that is what the Crowleys lack.

No doubt parents will be deeply moved by this family’s plight, but the emphasis in the title is firmly on the ordinary.