Despite Harrison Ford's strong performance, 'Extraordinary Measures' nothing special

Filmmakers move key part of compelling story from Oklahoma to Nebraska

Even Oklahomans who can forgive the filmmakers for snubbing our capital city will find “Extraordinary Measures” a less than extraordinary cinematic experience.

The first big-screen effort from CBS Films, the leaden family drama plays like a big-budget, star-studded TV movie.

Screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs and director Tom Vaughan do little to innovate or elevate “Extraordinary Measures” beyond the overcoming-the-odds formula used in dozens of Lifetime and Hallmark Channel telefilms.

Billed as “inspired by a true events,” the film follows the desperate efforts of real-life dad John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) to find a treatment for Pompe disease, a rare genetic muscle-wasting disorder afflicting two of his three children, Megan (Meredith Droeger) and Patrick (Diego Velazquez).

When we meet the Crowley family, Megan is celebrating her eighth birthday, and her father’s dread is growing, since the typical lifespan for Pompe patients is nine years. While perusing Pompe research, he reads about University of Nebraska scientist Dr. Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford), whose work seems ahead of the field.

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