The Next Three Days (2010)
Certified: 12
Duration: 122 minutes
Directed by: Paul Haggis
Starring: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, Brian Dennehy, Olivia Wilde, Jason Beghe
KRS release
Paul Haggis, who made quite a splash in 2005 with his critically acclaimed Oscar-winning film Crash, delivers a solid and elegant thriller with a good dose of human element. The Next Three Days is a remake of the 2007 French film Pour Elle, but it is actually better than the original.
John Brennan (Russell Crowe) is leading the perfect life: He teaches English, he is happily married to businesswoman Laura (Elizabeth Banks) and has a young son named Luke (Ty Simpkins). But one fine morning, after a night out, all this comes crashing down. Laura is placed under arrest, accused of her boss’s murder and she is soon convicted of the crime. Luke refutes his mother and Laura even attempts suicide.
John wants to find a solution to these problems and anything, absolutely anything, will do. He eventually finds help from a convict (Liam Neeson) who has managed to escape from prison a number of times.
John starts building information on what is needed to carry out such an act. He tries to raise Luke normally by taking him to visit his grandparents (Brian Dennehy and Helen Craey) and to a friend’s birthday party, but in the meantime he is also busy trying to make false passports and getting information on the prison.
Trouble soon arises in the form of Detective Quinn (Jason Beghe) and Lt Nabulsi (Lennie James) who are hot on his trail. Meanwhile his objectives are to escape from Pittsburgh and leave the country.
The elements of sacrifice, the effect the mother/wife in prison has on the family and the moral repercussions of the actions John will undertake add further layers to this thriller. Mr Haggis is intent on telling a story and never lets the thrills derail the tale and the film’s pacing is steady but never frantic. The film adopts the viewpoint of the events as seen through the eyes of John Brennan.
Russell Crowe plays John Brennan in his usual manner i.e. intensely. Elizabeth Banks is nice and most of the audience’s sympathy is reserved for her but the focus is more on Mr Crowe than on her.
The latter delivers without going over the top, making his performance quite an enjoyable one. It’s quite a pleasure to see him dominate the film without seemingly making much of an effort at all. Like in Crash, Mr Haggis pins down the right atmosphere and ambience as he creates a realistic background to the story.
Cinematographer Stephane Fontaine’s lens has a greyish tinge which makes the film pleasing and look real at the same time. By the end of the film, spectators will have been put through quite some action, with the film’s third act really amplifying certain events, leaving most breathless. The result is that rare oddity: an intelligent thriller.