First Hit: Although based on a true story, I found it hard to connect to because much of it seemed staged.
Harrison Ford plays an ornery self-absorbed scientist, named Dr. Stonehill, who is looking for a way to create a treatment for Pompe disease.
This disease is about muscle degeneration and the kids who are born with it usually die by age 9. John Crowley and Aileen Crowley (played by Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell respectively) play the real life parents of three children, two of which have the disease.
The two children Megan (played by Meredith Droeger) and Patrick (played by Diego Velazquez) are bed and wheelchair bound. After a scare, where Megan almost dies, John walks out of a business meeting and heads to Nebraska to meet Dr. Stonehill. When he finds him, he discovers that he is very opinionated, headstrong, underfunded and underappreciated in the research work he is doing.
John believes in the work the Dr. is doing and starts a fund and then a company to find a cure for his children. However, Dr. Stonehill is as difficult to work with as he is ornery and to make their dream come true there are numerous trials and tribulations they must work through.
Ford is effective as Stonehill. He plays self absorbed and ornery very well and was very convincing as a scientist who has done a lot of theoretical work but has never brought a drug to market. Fraser was OK but I never found him believable in the role, except as a loving father. Russell was underutilized in this role. I don’t think Tom Vaughan (Director) let the story speak for itself. I kept feeling that emotional scenes were too set-up with music and dialogue instead of letting the story carry the emotion and the scene.
Overall: It is a good story adequately told.