CBS Films

Brendan Fraser (left) and Harrison Ford star in "Extraordinary Measures."

Publicity for "Extraordinary Measures" hints at an inspiring fact-based story about sick children being rescued from certain death by a miracle of modern medicine.

To its credit, however, Harrison Ford's new movie is more than that. It's a story of sick children being rescued despite financial realities and hidebound scientific research protocols that seem almost as deadly and impersonal as the disease that threatens the kids.

Brendan Fraser plays drug industry executive John Crowley, two of whose three children have a form of neuromuscular disorder called Pompe disease. It usually kills by the age of 10, and the Crowley children are approaching that awful precipice.

Crowley spends every spare moment studying the incurable disease and searching for accounts of promising treatment. That's how he learns of Robert Stonehill, a University of Nebraska scientist who believes he can save Pompe victims but hasn't been able to get the research funding he needs to validate his theory.

It's not that other scientists doubt Dr. Stonehill's approach. It's that he's a headstrong and cantankerous S.O.B. whom no one wants to work with. Stonehill is a composite who doesn't exist in the Geeta Anand book that inspired the movie, and Ford wears the character like a latex glove.

Desperate to keep his children alive, Crowley quits his job and, with Stonehill, starts a foundation to raise the money that is needed. Later, they bag the foundation and launch a research company with the hard-won support of venture capitalists.

Because of the parties' differing motives, these scenes are some of the movie's most interesting. Crowley wants to save his children; the money-men are in it to profit from an expensive new drug. Still to come are the movie's passages about research protocols that move at a snail's pace and resist efficiency improvements.

Meanwhile, Crowley's children remain sick and begin to show symptoms of Pompe's gruesome endgame.

"Extraordinary Measures" moves a bit slowly under director Tom Vaughan, especially in the middle. And Robert Nelson Jacobs' screenplay is deficient in character development with the exception of Ford's Dr. Stonehill. Fraser never develops momentum as the crusading dad he's supposed to be, and Keri Russell barely registers as the ailing children's mother.

In spite of its weaknesses, "Extraordinary Measures" provides an eye-opening glimpse into the realities of bringing a new drug to market. It's not encouraging -- and that's only part of the picture.

Perhaps there should be a sequel about what happens when health insurance companies are asked to pay for the Pompe treatment.