(Long Island, N.Y.) The Next Three Days is a really solid little film that, for me, really flew in under the radar. Of course, I’d seen the trailers, but I didn’t really have high expectations, despite the fact that one of my all-time favorite actors, Liam Neeson, appeared to have a co-starring role. I’m not sure why…it’s just that something about the trailer didn’t click with me. So, imagine my surprise when I actually sat down and found myself liking The Next Three Days. Really!
Okay, the plot goes like this: a woman named Lara Brennan (Elizabeth Banks) is accused of murder. Her husband, John Brennan (Russell Crowe), refuses to believe she did it, despite a pile of damning evidence that would even convict the Pope. While raising their son alone, John fights on her behalf for several years until her appeals dry up, getting desperate after Lara unsuccessfully attempts suicide.
John, normally a nebbish, law-abiding kind of guy, cracks and hatches a plan to bust his wife out of the big house. To do that, he consults Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson), a former criminal who is well known for having escaped prison several times. Armed with Damon’s detailed advice, John begins obsessively planning, determined to reunite with his beloved wife, no matter what the cost.
What I liked so much about The Next Three Days was the way it slowly builds to its climax, which was refreshing. In the hands of another filmmaker, I’m sure this would have played out like a rap video, with John becoming a hardened gangsta and breaking his wife out of
the pen quite possibly no more than ten minutes after the opening credits had finished rolling. But director Paul Haggis takes his time; he realizes that John, as a character, is at first ill-equipped to handle this undertaking, and thus slowly and realistically chronicles his transformation. The actual escape attempt doesn’t happen until the last quarter of the movie, and while some critics found the build-up to be too slow, I personally thought it made me buy the premise that much more.
But when the movie DOES start moving, it’s…hmm, what would be a good film review cliché to use? How about, “It’s a thrill ride that will grab you and never let go!” Yeah, that about sums it up.
The acting helps with this believability. Russell Crowe, as John, is at the top of his game…now that he’s firmly in his middle age; he seems comfortable playing characters with an aura of vulnerability about them. Of course, speaking of believability, The Next Three Days does stretch that concept rather thin in the sense that every female character in the film finds the saggy, grey-bearded, pot-bellied John the most attractive man they’ve ever met, and take every opportunity to tell him so. These scenes are just awkward and out-of-place (although they don’t happen too often, so whatever).
Elizabeth Banks is solid as Lara, but since she’s cooling her heels in jail most of the time and the film is told from John’s perspective, she really isn’t given that much to do. But when the script calls for a few tears or whatnot, she certainly holds her own. Oddly, Brian Dennehy has a role as John’s father, but is given no lines for most of the film, to the point that I thought that some real-life tragedy had befallen Dennehy, robbing him of his ability to speak. But, thankfully, he does start blabbing eventually.
By the way, if you’re planning on going to see The Next Three Days just because you’re a big Liam Neeson fan (like me!), don’t bother. Sadly, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen about 99.779% of his screen time in this movie. I think maybe they left out a
shot of him sipping coffee or something, but that’s it; his character gives Brennan a crash course in staging a jailbreak while sitting in a diner, and that’s all we ever see of him.
My one other gripe about The Next Three Days is a common theme I see
in films of this type. Man loses girl, and goes to insane lengths to get her back. Do we EVER see these roles reversed? I can’t think of any movie where I’ve seen a woman do for her man what John does
for Lara. I know women can be this devoted in real life, but in Hollywood Lara would have ran off with the milkman 72 minutes into John’s jail term (while saying something like, “You’re never there for me!!”). Chicks get a bum rap in film, I’m telling ya.
So, you want an involving, well-paced film that actually takes the time to realistically build up to an exciting and rewarding climax? Then The Next Three Days is for you.
