THE NEXT THREE DAYS

The Next Three Days (2010)
Grade: B
Starring: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Lennie James, Bryan Dennehy, Ty Simpkins and Olivia Wilde
PREMISE: A man decides to spring his wife from jail before she goes to prison for life for a murder he believes she didn’t commit.

RATED PG-13 for language, some violence, and intense emotional content

Ten years ago, Russell Crowe was the most wanted man on the planet. Ruggedly handsome, intense, capable of carrying a film, convincing as both a romantic lead and an action star, admired by women for his intelligence and charm and admired by men for his toughness—he also had an awe-inspiring streak of big-time, popular, award-nominated films (from 1999-2001 The Insider, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind), won an Oscar, and was all over, and then…I’m not really sure what happened. The bad press after he threw a telephone at a hotel clerk in frustration? A holier-than-thou attitude when it came to choosing scripts? Too many off-beat scripts? Went out of style? Coasting on his reputation? His last movie of note was 2010’s overblown Robin Hood—his last big Russell Crowe movie: 2005’s Cinderella Man.

The Next Three Days, a long but decidedly white-knuckle thriller with a few great surprises up its sleeve, was the first movie in a long time that made me sit up in my seat and go: man, Russell Crowe is awesome! Some of his films, like Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind, are classics that will never go out of style, but those did come out after 10 years ago. Finally, here’s something current to get excited about.

Plot: The happy marriage of John (Crowe) and Lara (Elizabeth Banks) Brennan becomes a doomed marriage when Lara is one day arrested for murder. The victim was her boss, a woman she had a notorious feud with and with whom she was seen arguing earlier that day. A bloodstain is also found on the coat she was wearing the night of the murder. But not for a second does John, a community college teacher, believe she did it. Struggling to raise his young, increasingly-distant son Luke (Ty Simpkins) and to stay optimistic, the news that Lara lost her appeal and is going to prison for life becomes too much for John. With some advice from the author of a book on prison breaks (Liam Neeson, in an effective cameo), he begins drafting an extensive plan to break Lara out and run away--with everything from the amount of money he’ll need, to the legal papers he’ll need for fake identities, to possible destinations and the amount of time it will take local authorities to cut off modes of travel. With Elizabeth getting stressed and sad-eyed, and one escape plan failing, John knows he’ll only have one chance before he loses any hope of a happy future with his wife forever.

What Works?
Crowe never was the loudest, most explosive actor, but he’s always been watchable, an intense, intelligent screen presence, and he does that again in nearly every scene of this taut thriller. Unshaven and wild-eyed, he’s easily-convincing as a man on the edge, a man capable of making some devastating decisions. Thankfully, writer/director Paul Haggis avoids letting the character fall into an unlikable trap by keeping his relationship with the mother of a friend of his son’s (the gorgeous Olivia Wilde) brief and strictly platonic. In the film’s other key role, Banks is effective as the increasingly weary Lara, winning your sympathy even while you’re not sure of her guilt/innocence in the key case. You do feel her pain, though, when her son begins to shun and ignore her because of his confusion and shame.

Other than the acting, the movie picks up once the primary caper begins, and it doesn’t let up, keeping you glued to your seat and your television. The plan is dense but not implausibly so, and a few big curveballs are handled with impressive verve by Haggis’ screenplay. In fact, this is probably the most original thriller I’ve seen in a while; I gave some delighted exclamations as the film went on. The score is effective, and the cross-cutting scenes of John and Lara trying to escape while the police strive to catch them are well-edited and always interesting.

What Doesn’t Work?
Most of the central 90 minutes are superb, winning your attention without fail, but the movie struggles to keep your interest early on—even once John begins taking steps to carrying out the central caper. It still moves a little slowly (and the movie’s nearly two hours and fifteen minutes total). Days also struggles to end, as though the crew had a hard time letting go. And the movie, while clearly not wanting to be boring, stumbles over a few odd twists (a faux cliffhanger beginning, a possible big twist) that build some intrigue but ultimately seem unnecessary and forced.

(Also, and this can’t really count against the movie, but that Neeson is only in one scene is a shame. Since he’s got a similar appeal to Crowe-physically impressive, fiercely-intelligent, capably intense-and is the hotter star right now, I would have loved to have seen him share more screen time with Russell, possibly working together as full-on costars. Just sayin’.)

Content:
Pretty clean for an adult thriller. There are a few moderately-bloody flashbacks to the key murder, one scene of gun violence, a few cusswords and some sexuality, but most of this movie’s intensity comes from just that: intensity.

Bottom Line (I Promise):
A taut, stomach-crunching thriller that will genuinely surprise you at parts, The Next Three Days struggles to get off the ground but soars in its best moments. Oh, and its star, the former Maximus Decimus Murridius, is pretty darn good.

The Next Three Days (2010)
Written and Directed by Paul Haggis
Rated PG-13
Length: 133 minutes