Extreme Measures

Search Reviews · Now Playing · All Reviews

Starring	Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman
Director	Michael Apted
Year	1996
What it's worth		Matinee (Good way to spend a couple of hours.)

Thrillers have been wrapped around just about every concept under the sun. We have political thrillers, sports thrillers, family drama thrillers, and courtroom thrillers, just to name a few. Medical thrillers aren't unknown, either; technically, The Fugitive was a medical thriller. The good thrillers manage to excite and also get a flavor for their setting. Extreme Measures succeeds at that; it's chocked full of your standard jump-in-your-seat tension, but also wraps its teeth around some pretty tough medical dilemmas while it's at it.

Hugh Grant plays Doctor Guy Luthan in an almost-departure from his usual self- effacing role (almost). He's a crack young E.R. doctor (yep, the first few scenes look like they're straight out of the TV show) whose career is on the rise. He stumbles on a patient with very strange symptoms, and in his dogged pursuit of the cause, discovers a medical team using some extremely shady practices for their research.

Gene Hackman plays Doctor Lawrence Myrick, a famous and well-respected physician with one flaw; he's the leader of the illegal medical team, and won't let anything get in the way of saving lives, even if it means sacrificing some others. His job is to stop Luthan from blowing their cover, whether by discouragement, destroying Luthan's career, or ending his life.

The movie deals pretty squarely with one of the central problems of medical research: how much can be sacrificed in the name of advancing care for patients? Can we experiment on animals? Can we experiment on people? To what extent can we justify pain and suffering if it holds the promise of greater good for the rest of humanity? It's a tough topic and, conveniently, one that can be summarized in just a few sentences, so it's ideal for a movie to present in between bad guys popping up and shooting at the hero.

I'm always impressed when a film doesn't stoop to simplifying problems to gross black-and-white issues, especially when dealing with such a delicate issue as this. Luthan has a serious dilemma, here: Myrick is not a mad scientist, hacking away at obscene parodies of laboratories in disgusting experiments that prove nothing. He's actually on to something, making great progress, and has a whole staff of people willing to give up everything in order to help solve this medical crisis. He's very sane about what he's doing, and Luthan is in a position to destroy it all. Does he want to?

Of course, all this discussion may be making this movie sound pretty cerebral. Don't be fooled; it's not. It's first and foremost a thriller, with assassins, double agents, not knowing who you can trust, mortal danger, fates worse than death, and things that go jump in the night.

It's very hard for a movie to be both a shoot-em-up and be concerned with any real issues along the way. By necessity, both must give a little, so Extreme Measures is not a top-notch intrigue and won't inspire hours of debate, either. But it does manage to do passing well in both, and for that, it's one step ahead of 90% of the other suspense hawkers that hit the screens. It's a good show to see when you're in the mood for a movie that raises the hairs on the back of your neck and keeps your brain awake at the same time.

Search Reviews · Now Playing · All Reviews

More information about this movie is available at the Internet Movie database has about this movie.

In the Dark is created by Beth Ann Griese. In the Dark and the reviews on it are copyrighted; you may link to any portion of this site, but the contents cannot be copied without permission.