The Next Three Days
DIRECTOR: Paul Haggis
CAST: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Brian Dennehy and Liam Neeson
CLASSIFICATION: 13 VL
RUNNING TIME: 132 minutes
RATING: ***
MAVERICK screenwriter and director Paul Haggis returns to the big screen with a detail-heavy ramble through Pittsburgh.
He brings together a stellar cast who manage to create some interesting characters, even if they only get a few minutes of screen time. Unfortunately, even the presence of Russell Crowe, Liam Neeson and a heavyweight TV stalwart like Brian Dennehy can’t quite keep it all together.
The film dives right into the story with very little set-up, but Elizabeth Banks and Crowe quickly establish their characters. Lara Brennan’s got a temper, John Brennan is the peacemaker.
John is a community college teacher struggling to keep it together after Lara is sent to prison.
When her appeals come to naught, she becomes suicidal and he decides to break her out of jail. Never mind that he’s more a bumbling professor than burgeoning bad guy, he’s desperate and meticulous and that counts for a lot.
Crowe carries the storyline, and basically the film is inspired by a French film called Pour Elle. Now, that title literally means “for her” and the original film was subtitled Anything For Her, which should tell you what this film is all about.
Everything Brennan does is because he loves his wife.
Do not go in expecting cool car-chase scenes or overly clever duplicity. Instead, what you get is a story that lurches along in fits and starts as Brennan goes about trying to figure out how to do all manner of illegal things.
The story moves in an ever-tightening spiral chronology-wise, but the pacing still suffers as the plot doesn’t move along smoothly.
When the police re-investigate the case, the story never pronounces on Lara’s guilt and when it gets tense, it gets really tense and the characters are sympathetic.
But, while the audience will completely empathise with Crowe’s character, you never quite believe that he is capable of what he does get right. Even when things don’t quite go as expected, it is still rather implausible.
Still, the film’s not bad considering this is the guy who created Walker, Texas Ranger. It’s just not quite Crash.
If you liked… The Sentinel, The Fugitive or Vantage Point… you will like this.