No one can do grumpy like Harrison Ford. (Note to Warner Bros.: Time to reboot the “Grumpy Old Men” franchise, this time with Ford and Nick Nolte?) The actor is at his ingratiatingly grumpiest in “Extraordinary Measures,” in which he plays a dedicated scientist trying to find a cure for a rare fatal disease.
His may be a supporting part here -- a sizable one, but it’s not his character who drives the story. But he is the reason this medical drama is opening in megaplexes. If it weren’t for Ford stomping around a medical research lab clad in worn blue jeans and tight T-shirts, it would be just another better-than-average TV movie sandwiched inbetween episodes of “Army Wives” on the Lifetime network. Or, make that the post-“60 Minutes” slot on CBS, given that “Measures” is the maiden offering of CBS Films, the new feature film division of the venerable TV network.
The movie is based on a compelling real life story: A businessman, John Crowley (Brendan Fraser), teams up with a medical researcher, Dr. John Stockwell (Ford), to develop a drug to save Crowley’s two fatally ill children, who suffer from Pompe Disease, a rare genetic disorder. (“Measures” is adapted from Wall Street Journal reporter Geeta Anand’s 2006 nonfiction book, “The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million – and Bucked the Medical Establishment -- in a Quest to Save His Children.”)
So, what does Ford, now 67, have to be grumpy about?
In the film, his irascible character (a composite based on various scientists and doctors with whom the real life Crowley worked) rails against the constraints and barriers that the business world impose on science. In real life, one suspects Ford can’t be thrilled at a career in which his options, if he wants to maintain his status as a leading man, are narrowing fast.
For Ford, there’s maybe another creaking Indiana Jones sequel, or -- please don’t let it be so! -- a cameo in a 3D reboot of “Star Wars,” but not much else can be on the horizon. Anyone think studios are clamoring for him to star in a big-budget remake of “King Lear?”
While, Hollywood has rarely been kind to its aging stars, a large percentage of men have remained viable well into their 50s. But to maintain a busy career with top billing into one’s 60s and beyond can be exceedingly tricky, especially now that westerns, which used to serve as the last frontier for aging male stars, have disappeared.
What’s a Medicare card-holding star to do, if he’s not Clint Eastwood?
The smart ones give up on carrying a movie on their arthritic shoulders and settle instead for juicy supporting roles. Think of Sean Connery and the brio he brought to “The Rock.” Ditto for Dustin Hoffman in “Finding Neverland” and “The Fockers” and the late Paul Newman in “Road to Perdition.” To keep working, they became celluloid miniaturists. (We'll see how well Mel Gibson, now 54, is holding up when his new suspense thriller, "Edge of Darkness," opens next weekend.)
