Review of The Next Three Days (2010) by Mark James A — 05 Nov 2013

Plot/Summary.

Three years ago, John Brennan's wife Lara was arrested for murder. Though John has been fighting to prove Lara's innocence, her final appeal has now been rejected. Unable to endure the thought of spending the rest of her life in prison, Lara attempts suicide. Although John has never even handled a gun, the law-abiding teacher and family man gives up on pursuing legal channels and with the help of a successful prison escapee, puts together a desperate and violent plan to break Lara out.

DIRECTED By(Paul Haggis).

Russell Crowe(John Brennan).

Elizabeth Banks(Lara Brennan).

Brian Dennehy(George BrennaN).

Lennie James(Lieutenant Nabulsi).

Olivia Wilde(Nicole).

Ty Simpkins(Luke).

Helen Carey(Grace Brennan).

Liam Neeson(Damon Pennington).

MY Review.

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An Americanized remake of Pour Elle, The Next Three Days chronicles one man's increasingly desperate attempts to liberate his wife from prison for a crime she says she didn't commit. John Brennan (Russell Crowe) is not some ex-Navy seal or badass cop; he's an English lit professor at a community college in Pittsburgh, hardly anyone's idea of a tough guy or jailbreak expert.

His wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) has been convicted and incarcerated for the brutal murder of her boss. But with her legal options at an end, it now appears that she will spend the rest of her life in prison. John, who has been raising their young son alone, has other plans. He's hellbent on busting her out of jail. Problem is that he hasn't the foggiest idea of how to do it.

Thus begins his long, often painful learning curve as he progresses (or is that degenerates?) from suburban everyman into a desperate criminal out to risk his very life for the woman he loves. His quest makes him cross paths with an ex-con (Liam Neeson, vainly trying to hide his Irish accent) and drug dealers (RZA and Kevin Corrigan), and also gains the attention of the police (Walking Dead's Lennie James and Aisha Hinds). The cast also includes Olivia Wilde as a local single mom whom Brennan befriends, Brian Dennehy as Brennan's laconic father, and Daniel Stern as Lara's exasperated attorney.

The Next Three Days Trailer.

Writer-director Paul Haggis does a solid job of crafting both a gripping character study and a crackerjack thriller. The movie had plenty of chances to go wrong or devolve into melodrama and hoary cliches. While there are certainly elements of both here, Haggis manages to rise above them and deliver a moving, exciting film that also just so happens to be a veritable how-to guide for breaking out of prison (at least from the county slammer).

Haggis has cast a fine ensemble here, but it's really Crowe's central performance that makes the movie click. Even though he's played tough guys before, the fact that he's gotten older and, well, fat helps us believe him as an everyman who wouldn't even know how to load a gun. But it's really more the moral slippery slope that his character's on that drives the plot forward rather than his acquisition of badass skills. Crowe sells the humanity of the character, and that's what keeps the movie grounded and the viewer invested in it as the story gets crazier.

- Lionsgate.

Liam Neeson "mentors" Russell Crowe in The Next Three Days.

Elizabeth Banks has a few moments here, but she's somewhat out of her depth. There's one key scene where her character's innocence isn't quite clear and Banks does a good job of playing that gray area. James and Hinds play standard issue movie cops in a few sequences that owe a bit too much to The Fugitive, while Neeson makes the most of his one scene. Dennehy doesn't utter his first line until almost three-quarters of the way through the movie, but his gruff, burly presence does more than dialogue could to convince us this is a man who intimidates Crowe.

While the film boasts several exciting action scenes, it's the simpler moments such as Brennan's attempt to break into a locked room or his dealings with the lowlifes who provide him with know-how and materials that creates the most tension and prove the most memorable. Overall, The Next Three Days successfully busts out the drama and thrills in equal and intense measure which is why I think The Next Three Days is a 4 out of 5.