EXTREME MEASURES
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 7.0 Alternative Scale: *** out of ****
United States, 1996 U.S. Release Date: 9/27/96 (wide) Running Length: 1:58 MPAA Classification: R (Violence, profanity, mature themes) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Cast: Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Morse, Bill Nunn, Debra Monk, Paul Guilfoyle Director: Michael Apted Producer: Elizabeth Hurley Screenplay: Tony Gilroy based on the novel by Michael Palmer Cinematography: John Bailey Music: Danny Elfman U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Gramercy Hospital's emergency room is a picture of overcrowded chaos. Only one operating room is available, and Dr. Guy Luthan (Hugh Grant) has to make a decision: operate immediately on an injured cop whose vital signs are stable or on the drugged-out junkie who shot him, whose condition is worse. Luthan elects the former, and, while both patients survive, he's never wholly satisfied with his choice, as he later confides to Jodie (Sarah Jessica Parker), a sympathetic ER nurse.
It's moral questions like these that lift EXTREME MEASURES above the level of a routine, paranoia-driven thriller like THE NET. True, when you get right down to it, this movie is about a guy trying simultaneously to survive, clear his name, and bring the bad guys down, but there are more shades of gray here than in most modern-day Hitchcockian efforts. EXTREME MEASURES never portrays guilt as clear- cut, and its easy to see how, by telling the same story with a script slanted towards another character's perspective, the roles of protagonist and antagonist could be reversed.
In the film MALICE, Alec Baldwin's character gave a delicious speech about the so-called "God complex" that affects some doctors. "I am God!" he declared, indicating that he had the power of life and death over his patients. EXTREME MEASURES is also about a doctor who crosses the line, although, unlike in MALICE, his goal isn't a big financial windfall. In EXTREME MEASURES, Dr. Lawrence Myrick (Gene Hackman) is a world renowned neurosurgeon who believes he has discovered the means to heal severed spines and allow paralyzed people to walk again. Frustrated by the laws that constrain medical experimentation, he sets up an underground complex and begins to kidnap homeless people from hospital ERs to involuntarily assist him. His goal is to be known as the man who enabled the lame to walk -- a very godlike ambition.
Luthan becomes involved when lab tests on one of his dead patients reveal some very strange things. Stonewalled by his bosses, who tell him to forget it or risk his promising career, he begins his own investigation. Soon, pressure is being brought to bear on him, and he discovers the price of ignoring others' warnings. Now, desperate to clear himself of a crime he didn't commit, he ends up wandering through New York City sewers and subway tunnels, dodging bullets and searching for the mysterious place where Myrick conducts his experiments.
The question that Luthan eventually has to confront is whether the ends do indeed justify the means. There's no court scene here, but, in an extended, well-played confrontation between the two leads, the morality of the entire medical profession (not to mention the validity of the Hippocratic Oath) is put on trial. The resolution is perhaps not as powerful or satisfying as we might hope, but it's not a cop-out, either.
Considering its overall format, EXTREME MEASURES employs the familiar rhythms that have fueled dozens of Hitchcock-inspired thrillers (including THE FUGITIVE). The hero is on the run, being hunted by pursuers with uncertain motives. Computer files are deleted. Friends become suspicious and unhelpful. Evidence is planted. There's at least one betrayal. Director Michael Apted, perhaps best known for his 7-UP documentaries, has fashioned a well-paced features, keeping the tension level high even during routine action sequences (of which there are perhaps a few too many). He has a keen sense of atmosphere, and the underground sequences are especially creepy and claustrophobic. In fact, EXTREME MEASURES is a surprisingly dark film. Even the humor is of the gallows variety.
So how does Hugh Grant, the "aw shucks" poster boy of feel-good movies, fare in a role that is significantly different from anything he has recently attempted? For the most part, he's solid. Not great, but effective in getting us to forget temporarily about his appearances in FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL and NINE MONTHS. We come to identify with Luthan, which is really all that's necessary for EXTREME MEASURES to succeed.
Gene Hackman is, as always, excellent, and it's in large part due to his performance that the film's central moral dilemma has teeth. Sarah Jessica Parker, another actor better known for playing light, undemanding characters, is fine in a supporting role. David Morse (THE CROSSING GUARD) and Bill Nunn (THE LAST SEDUCTION) play guys with guns but no personalities (attempts to give them "character-building" scenes fail).
EXTREME MEASURES isn't going to be described as the "slam bang thrill ride" of the Autumn, or any other such nonsense. The film's inherent tension comes not from the shootouts and chases, but from its core ethical questions -- questions that ultimately have to be addressed, not only in movies, but in real life. "If you could cure cancer by killing one person, wouldn't you have to do it?" Obviously, there's no easy answer, and, whether you agree or disagree with the position taken by EXTREME MEASURES, at least the film frames its response in an entertaining, and occasionally thought-provoking, package.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
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