By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

Contrary to popular belief, you can’t always tell a movie by its preview.
I usually adhere to the trailer theory — if the trailer stinks, so does the movie.

The way I see it, if a film studio can’t make a 30-60 second TV spot interesting, how can it possibly sustain any kind of interest in a movie two hours long?

The trailer for Extraordinary Measures falls dangerously close to the stinking category.
Stars Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser spend most of their precious trailer-time screaming at one another, while some plot about an incurable disease seems to get the center of attention as we are urged not to miss this great medical spectacle (which is based on a true story. )

Skip the trailer. This isn’t the strongest of endorsements for this drama that combines a father’s (Fraser) love for his dying children with a research scientist’s (Ford) quest for the cure. Picture Marcus Welby as a great research scientist, along with having the world’s greatest bedside manner (he was the last doctor known to man to make house calls) and you get a general feel for Extraordinary Measures.

Fraser plays dad John Crowley. He is married to Aileen (Kari Russell). He has a pretty good job with a pharmaceutical company and the future on the job front looks even brighter. There’s just one problem: both of their children have Pompe, a children’s disease that almost always causes death by age eight or nine. John’s daughter Megan is already eight and son Patrick, who is sicker than Megan, is six. And there is no cure.

After Megan has another setback at the hospital, the couple is told nothing else can be done and they should pretty much be thankful for the time they have had.

John doesn’t like the answer of course, and after much studying finds eccentric scientist Dr. Robert Stonehill (Ford), who is holed up in the lab at the University of Nebraska. After several failed phone call attempts, John flies out to Lincoln to have some words with the good doctor about his kids.
He pretty much gets the same answer from Stonehill: He has some great theories on finding a cure, but the University of Nebraska spends more money on the football coach’s salary than they do on his research lab, so go back to your children and enjoy them while you still have them.

John lies though and says he is the head of a new foundation to raise money for research for Pompe, and he can have $10 million in his hands in a matter of days.

Thus begins a beautiful relationship, with lots of screaming, as they set up their own lab in a race against time to find a cure for sick kids everywhere, but particularly, Megan and Patrick.
There are the usual obstacles — cash shortfalls, mostly greedy medical corporate backers, etc., but eventually, they get the funding.

That is only the beginning though. As corporate money takes over, Dr. Stonehill’s theory gets lost in a sea of other theories and as their company is swallowed up by a bigger company, soon both men are outside looking in. The worst news is that the corporation is ready to start testing, but they are only going to test infants, so even after all that work, Megan and Patrick will still die.

It’s pretty formula stuff: the kids are precious; the pharmaceutical giant is worried about the bottom line and things look really bleak before something really good happens.
Despite being a standard medical drama, Extraordinary Measures will probably put a smile on your face by the time the end credits roll. And it is a heck of a lot more fun than the previews.


Critic's rating: C+