Desperate Measures

Widowed police officer Frank Conner (Andy Garcia) has a cancer-stricken nine-year-old son, Matthew (Joseph Cross), whose only hope for survival is a bone-marrow transplant, but the only matching donor is Pete McCabe (Michael Keaton), a vicious, psychotic killer being held in a maximum-security prison. McCabe at first denies Conner's request for help but then agrees, devising an elaborate plan to use the medical procedure as an opportunity to escape. McCabe breaks loose before the transfusion can occur, and Conner is forced to become both his tracker and his ally, wanting to bring the serial killer back into custody but determined--for the sake of his son--to keep McCabe alive. Keaton is chilling as the vicious, brilliant convict, while Garcia turns in a heartfelt performance as a devoted father caught in the middle of a bad situation getting worse. With DESPERATE MEASURES, director Barbet Schroeder (REVERSAL OF FORTUNE), renowned for his knack of combining urgent family drama with white-knuckle suspense, adds another crowd-pleasing, thought-provoking film to his list of successes. (official distributor synopsis)