Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser hash it out.
"97 percent of people will not have the courage to post this as their status update. Women are dying of breast cancer and this is wrong. For the 3 percent who post this, it is an important issue. Only 3 percent of people will have the courage to take this stand. If you are one of them, post this as your status update for an hour to pass it along."
Status updates like this are showing up on Facebook like wildfires. And like everything else about this ever-present social network, they have fans and detractors.
I read an article recently that summed it perfectly for me: slactivism. You post an update, but have you really "done" anything? Will any minds be changed because of what you had the "courage" to post?
My husband and I have further wryly noted to each other that these "controversial" statuses are rarely things that people would ever come out against. Really, do you know anyone who roots for cancer?
I would call "Extraordinary Measures" a slactivism movie. You go to it, feel good that you feel bad for those poor people, and go on with your life.
The problem was, I didn't have that reaction at all.
The film is competently acted - after all it features Harrison Ford, albeit in a completely made-up character in a "true story." But that's only part of the issue, as far as I am concerned. This is the first movie that made me not want to jump up and cheer, but jump up and poll the audience's political views.
The audience, besides my son and I (who was assigned the film for his freelance movie reviewing job), was composed entirely of elderly people. The film centers on a family with two children with a terrible genetic disease called Pompe disease. In simple terms, the disease chokes the body to death by enlarging organs to the point where the person cannot breathe. Persons afflicted do not live past childhood.
Treatment, as you can imagine, is quite expensive. The Crowleys manage because Mr. Crowley (Brendan Fraser) works at a pharmaceutical company (one of the more interesting, and actually true, elements of the story) at the beginning of the film. They meet an eccentric scientist (played by Harrison Ford) who may hold the key to curing their children.
At one point Aileen Crowley (played by Keri Russell) says plainly it costs $40,000 a month to care for the children. It was at this point I simply wanted to stop the film and start questioning the audience.
What if these people were poor and had no insurance? What if they were black or Hispanic? Would I hear sniffles then? Would you clap at the end then? What if they needed the government healthcare I have seen elderly people (granted, maybe not these exact elderly people, but maybe, who knows) on television screaming their heads off about?
It's no longer a nice Hollywood movie with well-behaved, pretty white children with means. What then?
I realize slacktivism is easier. You get your happy ending, and you can go home to Fox News. But I'm just asking questions. Isn't that what they do on Fox News, too?
