Brendan Frasier should really stick to the action flicks. It’s not that he’s horrible in a drama (or romance, or comedy, or whatever); it’s just that every time he’s on screen, you think a mummy is going to pop out and scare you from somewhere. Plus, he’s got that yummy action hero look—he’s just not the same in a business suit. Still, his latest film, Extraordinary Measures, is a heartwarming family drama worth a watch. (Spoilers ahead.)

Based on a true story, it’s the tale of two children with a rare muscular disorder, Pompe’s Disease, who are facing their mortality as best as two children ever could. With the support of their parents and older brother, the sister and brother—both under age ten—are wheelchair-bound, but don’t let that get them down. They continue to live as normal kids do—they go bowling, to the park, skating, have birthday parties—with a few contraptions to help them do so.

Their parents, of course, are well aware that they are approaching the maximum life expectancy for children with their condition; their daughter, in fact, has a very close brush with death, which prompts Frasier’s character into action. He decides to contact a very eccentric scientist (played by Harrison Ford) known to be a specialist on the disease who has been making breakthroughs in treatment formulas. Promising to get the scientist all the funding he needs to develop the remedy, Frasier begins a lengthy process of fundraising, schmoozing, worrying his wife, and even sacrificing his own career in order to develop a successful treatment for his family.

The treatment, which proves to be successful, does not cure the disease, though it does offer a lifetime of treatments—thereby saving the lives of the children portrayed in the film as well as many others. At times poignant enough, the film is reminiscent of Travolta’s role in A Civil Action—another based-on-life film—that had an impact, but a small one. The story was compelling enough, and most of the acting—particularly the precocious kids—was good; it just wasn’t adapted into a story as masterfully as other fact-based dramas, such as Erin Brockovich. A Friday night could be spent on worse, of course, and despite Frasier’s drippy suit and Harrison Ford’s weird mad scientist role, both are still pretty easy on the eyes—even if the latter is getting up there in the years department.