You don’t often see a Hollywood movie taking a positive view of big business — but “Extraordinary Measures” does just that. Still, despite bona fide big-screen stars Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford, it’s basically a tearjerking TV disease-of-the-week flick on the big screen.
In this feature inspired by real events, Fraser plays John Crowley, an Oregon marketing executive whose 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son are dying of Pompe disease, a rare form of muscular dystrophy that claims almost all of its victims before the age of 9.
John decides to quit his job and seek a cure by forming a biotech company with Dr. Robert Stonehill (Ford), a brilliant but extremely crotchety academic researcher who lacks funding to develop the enzyme infusion therapy on which he is working.
When the investors threaten to pull the plug after a few months, John sells the company to a much larger corporation at a huge profit — much to the horror of Robert, who fears losing the independence by answering to a profitdriven entity.
Most films today would tend to be on Robert’s side.
But “Extraordinary Measures” unusually slants to John — in Fraser’s most impressive performance to date — going out of his way to show his new corporate masters how they can make money from the research.
The film has John — seen enjoying a vast new home on Puget Sound — explaining that victims of the disease would need very expensive treatments for the rest of their (extended) lives.
It doesn’t mention, though, that the Orphan Drug Act of 1983 provides generous financial incentives to firms that develop drugs that help very small numbers of people, such as those afflicted with Pompe.
In real life, John Crowley’s two children, still living, were much younger than they are in the film.
And Ford’s character — slightly overplayed and treated as an eccentric prone to alienating his colleagues — is a composite of several scientists.
Keri Russell underplays an underwritten role as Fraser’s long-suffering spouse.
As the film builds to a credulity-testing climax, there is less schmaltz than you might expect from the screenwriter of “Chocolat” — though the filmmakers seldom hesitate to milk the Crowley kids and other Pompe-afflicted children for tears.
Director Tom Vaughan (“What Happens in Vegas”) directs in basic TV style, with loads of expository dialogue and monotonous camerawork that adds nothing to the story.
“Extraordinary Measures” is basically “Lorenzo’s Oil” without the earlier film’s visual flair.
lou.lumenick@nypost.com