Extreme Measures (1996) * * *

Directed by:  Michael Apted

Starring:  Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman, David Morse, Sarah Jessica Parker


I enjoy movies that tantalize the viewer with questions that don't have easy answers.      A moral dilemma which hopefully no one will ever have to face is posed to Dr. Guy Luthan (Grant).     He is asked, "If you have to kill one person in order to cure cancer, wouldn't you have to do that?"   He gives an answer to the question, but it is a question that has numerous different answers, depending on who you ask.     Any of those answers could be correct or also be wrong.      Extreme Measures isn't resolved with an easy ending.     Its implications continue on well after it's over.

The aforementioned Dr. Luthan works in a New York hospital ER.    One night, a seemingly homeless man wearing a hospital bracelet stumbles into the ER.     He is shot through with pain and is delirious.     Despite the doctor's efforts, the man dies.     When Dr. Luthan attempts to look further into the man's death, he finds the body and any records associated with him have vanished.      This causes Dr. Luthan to further poke into the matter, even though he is warned off by his superiors.    

The investigation leads to some ghastly discoveries, including an underground homeless shelter where homeless men disappear without a trace and the other people are too frightened to talk.      Dr. Luthan is also shadowed by menacing men with guns and is fired from the hospital after large amounts of cocaine not belonging to him are found in his apartment.      Everything leads to Dr. Lawrence Myrick (Hackman), a neurologist who may be experimenting on homeless people in an effort to cure paralysis.     He has justifications for his actions:  "I'm 68 years old.   In five years if I'm lucky they'll let me work on a rat."    Is he a demented egomaniac?    Likely.     Will his research treat and cure paralysis so people could walk again?   Possibly.    Hackman, of course, is excellent.     His strength is playing Dr. Myrick so we can't make easy assumptions about him.      Yes, he is doing what is seemingly an evil thing, but is he an evil man?     Those who are paralyzed may see him as a godsend.     Others not in their shoes may disagree.   

Hugh Grant is normally at home in romantic comedies.     He is effortlessly likable in his own awkward way usually.     Here, he is up to the task of playing the lead in a thriller convincingly.    He is the last person I would imagine duking it out with a baddie on an elevator, but he holds his own.  
Grant is a moral center in the film, but he is now involved in a situation which tests those morals.      His argument against Dr. Myrick's methods are sound and logical, but they come from an objective point of view.      Then again, doctors in concentration camps experimenting on human subjects also felt they were performing miracles for the greater good of humanity.     Or were they just butchers?    Is Dr. Myrick a butcher?      We can't say for sure we know the correct answer.    The final scene involving Dr. Luthan and Dr. Myrick's wife further clouds the issue.     Dr. Myrick's question to Dr. Luthan resonates greatly:   "If you were paralyzed, what would you give to be able to walk again?"
The answer lies in each person's morality or at least their sense of desperation.