"Extraordinary Measures"

Although "Extraordinary Measures" is based on "The Cure" by Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Geeta Anand, this well-meaning tearjerker too often has the artificial flavor of a made-for-TV melodrama. Granted, you probably wouldn't see stars of Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser's caliber gracing a Lifetime Movie of the Week, but you'd definitely find some of the same situations, perhaps even a lot of nearly identical dialogue.

That's disheartening, since the theme of "Measures" -- a father literally racing against the clock to find a drug capable of saving his slow-dying children -- is deeply poignant. John Crowley (Fraser) is a marketing executive at Bristol-Myers who spends his evenings researching Pompe disease, a rare condition related to muscular dystrophy that has shown up in two of his three children. His wife, Aileen (Keri Russell), tries to keep up a sunny front for the kids, although she and John are both aware many children with Pompe have a life expectancy of only 8 or 9; the disease causes muscular deterioration as well as enlargement of internal organs. Six-year-old Patrick (Diego Velazquez) and 8-year-old Megan (Meredith Droeger) are already showing troubling symptoms, and when Megan is rushed to the ICU after a respiratory illness, one of the doctors urges the Crowleys to see her eventual death as "a blessing."

Instead, John travels from their home in Portland to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he stalks Dr. Robert Stonehill (Ford), a researcher who has devoted much of his career to studying Pompe. Even after John enlists Robert's help, there's the matter of trying to find the necessary financing for further study and development of a treatment, and "Measures" is most effective when it turns its attention to the delicate dance between the medical community and the business world. Suffice to say getting seed money for a biotech start-up requires considerable compromise, gentle arm-twisting and a sturdy stomach: It's hard not to squirm when financiers ask, "What rate of patient death can be defined as acceptable loss?"

"Measures" occasionally makes a stab at America's woebegone health insurance system -- Aileen points out the family will be facing $40,000 a month in medical bills if John loses his benefits package -- and allows Robert to rage against "the bean-counters" who put profits ahead of treating the sick and suffering. "This is not about a return on an investment -- it's about kids!" John bellows in one of the film's tenser moments.

But Robert Nelson Jacobs' screenplay generally opts to play it safe, which diffuses much of the drama. "Measures" includes numerous shots of weary-looking children hooked up to respirators or confined to wheelchairs; it could have used a little more insight and sass instead of the saccharin.

It also would have benefited from a more subtle touch from director Tom Vaughn, whose previous credits include the winning college comedy "Starter for Ten" and the dreary Cameron Diaz/Ashton Kutcher farce "What Happens in Vegas."

Speaking of Diaz, "Measures" often begs comparisons to last summer's "My Sister's Keeper," in which Diaz played a mom dealing with her daughter's leukemia. While "Keeper" had its flaws, it offered characters who were more fully defined than the ones in this story. John is bleary-eyed and determined, Robert is brilliant and belligerent, Aileen is hopeful yet terrified, and the kids are basically on hand to pluck the heartstrings every 10 minutes or so. Apparently, Jacobs had to do a little doctoring of his own to compress the story's timeframe and consolidate some of the major players in the actual case. That may account for why this true story that should have been an emotional powerhouse only gives off intermittent sparks.