Extraordinary Measures: PG: thematic material, language, mild suggestive moment; 1:46; $ $ $ (out of $5) 

A loving father taking some “Extraordinary Measures” to save his terminally ill kids is the not-so-easy-to watch topic of a film of the same name. Regardless, three cute children and decent performances from some name adults take it a step or two above standard movie-of-the-week fare. (It does, after all, carry the CBS Films brand as the first theatrical release from the folks at the TV network).

“Measures” begins engagingly enough, with a feisty little girl in a fast-moving wheelchair chasing her healthy older brother (Sam M. Hall) around a great-looking home in Portland, Ore.

It happens to be a prelude to the eighth birthday celebration for Megan Crowley (Meredith Droeger) who, with a younger sibling (Diego Velazquez), has been diagnosed with the very rare Pompe disease, a fatal form of muscular dystrophy.

A few scenes later, Megan is fighting off death while dad John Crowley (a very solid Brendan Fraser) takes matters into his own hands to change the course of some potentially tragic history by finding a cure.

One man apparently can make that possible in a story based on real people. Naturally, he’s sincerely weird and grumpily played by Harrison Ford, with this Dr. Robert Stonehill written as a composite of the doctors and researchers who worked long and hard — and not exactly without profit — to keep kids such as the Crowleys alive.

Their often inspiring plight, originally told in a book called “The Cure,” includes Crowley giving up his lucrative job to explore the business of medicine and attempting to persevere at all costs while his wife (the lovely but seemingly non-essential Keri Russell) stays home with the kids. That said, Crowley’s real-life dedication likely played out more extraordinary than the movie about his efforts.

Read more by John M. Urbancich at http://jmuvies.blogspot.com/