-By Doris Toumarkine

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First the good news about CBS Films’ first foray into theatrical since the long gone days of CBS Theatrical Films decades ago. Extraordinary Measures, a fact-based family drama plus business primer (with a light sprinkling of medical-thriller elements), is a fine accomplishment and entertaining ride. The less hopeful news is that similar high-quality, involving efforts that sought safe refuge in the comfortable middle ground ( Akeelah and the Bee, Flash of Genius, etc.) failed to do the theatrical business they so deserved. Yes, the middle-of-the-road Blind Side has surprised by breaking through, but Extraordinary Measures might be shackled with that maybe-best-for-TV ankle chain.

Yet it is so much more. As wisely adapted by Robert Nelson Jacobs ( Chocolat), skillfully directed by Scotland-born Tom Vaughan ( Starter for Ten), and superbly acted by stars Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford, the film works on several fronts. Much of the credit also goes to the screen-ready true story that inspired the script.

John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) is a fast-track corporate executive, but there’s trouble on the home front. He and loving wife Aileen (Keri Russell) have three young children, two of whom, Megan (Meredith Droeger) and Patrick (Diego Velazquez), are stricken with the usually fatal, muscular dystrophy-like Pompe disease, for which there is no cure. Jolted to action after Megan suffers a near-fatal setback, John aggressively goes after an academic researching the disease who he found on the Internet. This grumpy, downright rude and abrasive oddball is the University of Nebraska’s Dr. Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford), whose research on Pompe shows promise.

After several futile tries, John is able to collar Stonehill and plea for his help in finding a cure. When Stonehill complains of lack of funding, John impulsively jumps to the challenge, promising to raise the half-million the doctor needs to further his studies. John bolts from his cushy corporate job to form a foundation with Aileen. With her support and financial help from people like Atlanta’s Marcus Temple (Courtney B. Vance), whose child has Pompe, John miraculously raises the money. But Stonehill throws a curve: Aware that John has a business degree from Harvard, the doctor demands that he and John go private with their effort and form a biotech company.

That path requires John to pitch a Chicago venture-capital group headed by Dr. Renzler (David Clennon). Eventually, John and Robert get their bucks but are forced to sell their company (and pocket several million!) to Zymagen, a large, established biotech outfit headed by the smart and sensible Dr. Eric Loring (Patrick Bauchau).

John easily re-adapts to the corporate environment, but Robert, who had lived in a remote, rural Nebraska cabin and worked in a funky, music-filled lab at the university, doesn’t warm to the sleek, sterile glass-and-concrete world that is Zymagen’s campus. Nor is he a fit for the rigid corporate culture. In fact, for Zymagen executive Dr. Kent Webber (Jared Harris)—the ultimate corporate “suit”—Stonehill is a “spoiler.”

While Stonehill is the proverbial square peg, John’s business acumen makes him an effective mediator. He also helps revise Zymagen’s rulebook by getting four competing core research teams to collaborate on building the enzyme needed to fight Pompe. Twisting and turning via reveals and setbacks, while delivering easy-to-swallow, “dummy”-like doses of information about medical research and venture capital, the story leads to a clever and satisfying conclusion.

Director Vaughan’s only slips are into some shallow gooeyness. He’s prone to lots of joyful kiddie scenes, and stricken Megan is relentlessly cute. And the all-American, all-love family he fashions is almost too perfect for words. But Fraser again demonstrates that he can carry a film, while Ford shows he can really stretch.

Hopefully, Extraordinary Measures will prove that the middle holds for stimulating, well-crafted if light entertainment.