THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609280046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 57 lines
``EXTREME measures,'' trying to be both a thriller and a moral debate, invites audiences to take time out and smell the ether.
Hugh Grant, abandoning his more likable career as a romantic comic, is oh-so-serious and super efficient as he spits out medical jargon at a speed that would be the envy of any ``ER'' cast member. He's an idealistic emergency-room doctor who happens upon a dastardly scheme to use homeless folk like rats in an experiment involving spinal nerves.
It's meant to play out as a mystery, with the ominous possibilities of ``Coma,'' a more scary flick. Instead, it's merely a good doctor vs. bad doctor plot, with the audience way ahead of Hugh in figuring things out.
From his first appearance, accompanied by threatening music, Gene Hackman, who is cast as a brilliant, rich and famous doctor, is so evil that you know he graduated from the Fu Manchu School of Medicine. You wouldn't want to meet him in a dark operating room. He's definitely up to no good.
Since this introduction is early in the film, you think there must be more to it than just nice Hugh vs. evil Gene, but as time runs out at 118 minutes, you realize that WAS all there was to it.
Grant works hard and is adequate, although he never seems comfortable with the role. Action fans may be put off that he is constantly the victim, not the hero. In his ultra-vulnerable stance, he has a rough time of it - hit by a baseball bat in one scene and seemingly paralyzed in another.
In the final cliche, he is forced to issue the standard ``You're not God'' speech to Hackman. We've heard this one in every medical drama since Adam learned that fig leaves have thorns.
The film attempts to make us ponder whether it is OK to sacrifice a homeless, wretched few to save millions. The moralizing, while an admirable attempt to lift the film above the mere action genre, doesn't really reach a boiling point.
Filmed in Toronto and New York but set in New York, the difference in the settings is noticeable. The worms in the Big Apple can't really be recreated anywhere else than in the real thing.
Poor Sarah Jessica Parker, experiencing a bad hair day, is almost unrecognizable as a senior nurse who, like almost everyone else, has succumbed to the powerful influence of Hackman's bad doctor. Maybe Sarah Jessica's haggard appearance is because former boyfriend John-John Kennedy got married last week.
Produced by Elizabeth Hurley (Grant's real-life girlfriend) and directed by Michael Apted (``Coal Miner's Daughter''), the film has a musical score composed by Danny Elfman that constantly suggests tension where there is none. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Extreme Measures''
Cast: Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Morse
Director: Michael Apted
Music: Danny Elfman
MPAA rating: R (language, emergency room blood)
Mal's rating: Two stars by CNB