Film File - The Next Three Days
Life can change in an instant - a theme driving the first thriller of the New Year. Life seems perfect for John Brennan (Russell Crowe) until his wife, Lara (Elizabeth Banks), is arrested for a murder she says she didn't commit. Three years into her sentence, Brennan is struggling to hold his family together, raising their son Luke (Ty Simpkins) and teaching at a college while he chases every means available to prove his wife's innocence. With the rejection of their final appeal, Lara becomes suicidal and so her husband decides there is only one possible, bearable solution: to break his wife out of prison. Refusing to be deterred by impossible odds or his own inexperience, Brennan devises an elaborate escape plot and plunges into a dangerous and unfamiliar world, ultimately risking everything for the woman he loves. What would you do if the person you loved was suddenly arrested and taken from you forever? What if your only chance to pull your family's life back from the brink was for you to try to pull off a potentially deadly crime with virtually impossible odds of success? And if you did manage to succeed - then what? These questions are the basis of screenwriter/director Paul Haggis's suspense thriller examining the execution and outcome of a daring idea carried out by an intelligent, methodical but otherwise unremarkable man, whose actions are driven by desperation, determination and, above all, love. Based on the 2007 French thriller, 'Pour Elle', Haggis found the source material for what he called “Hitchcock's classic scenario†- an ordinary man who thrusts himself into extraordinary circumstances and is forced to confront the uneasy reality of what he becomes in the process. Russell Crowe is no stranger to emotional trauma; even his most celebrated role in the Oscar-winning 'Gladiator' saw him ably sprinkle tears amidst the bloody carnage en route to garnering the audience's sympathy. In 'The Next Three Days' he inhabits a very different and more modern version of conflicted man - the regular Joe pushed to the limit of his comfort zone. Like last year's 'Law Abiding Citizen' where Gerard Butler went from perfect neighbour to avenging angel, Crowe has little trouble transforming into a criminally savvy individual who uses the system to defeat itself. But it is Banks as the quiet woman forced into the unfamiliar hell of the prison system who owns the film. Watching her progression from shocked to despairing to emotionally shattered is a case study in method acting. The combination of Banks' victim of flawed justice allied to Crowe's frustrated male unable to protect his woman makes for an effective thriller in the capable hands of Paul Haggis. It's not up there with his Oscar-winning 'Crash' - not by a long shot - but is certainly worth the price of admission for a couple of hours' worth of entertainment.