Next Three Days a Break to Nowhere
Three years ago John Brennan’s (Russell Crowe) wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) was arrested for the murder of a coworker. Three months ago he learned from his lawyer Meyer Fisk (Daniel Stern) that their last appeal has failed and unless they take things to the Supreme Court Lara will be behind bars for the next 20 years. Today, John learned that his wife is going to be moved to a maximum security prison across the state at the end of the next 72 hours.
Elizabeth Banks and Russell Crowe in The Next Three Days © Lionsgate Films
But that’s not going to happen. Lara is innocent, John knows this. She is the mother of their child and should be with the both of them so they can continue their lives as a happy family. He is going to make sure this will to come to pass. In the next three days, he is going to break her out of prison, consequences by damned.
A remake of the French film Pour Elle, writer and director Paul Haggis’s The Next Three Days is arguably the best acted failure of a motion picture I’ve seen this year. Everyone in this, especially Crowe, is sensational, Haggis filling his cast with a plethora of veteran character actors (including Liam Neeson, Brian Dennehy and Olivia Wilde) and fresh-faced newcomers all of whom rise to the occasion. The problem is that the movie is a disjointed, poorly-paced mess that doesn’t always seem to know what it is doing with itself or where it is going. It moves in fits and starts, lurching around like a 15-year-old learning to drive his grandfather’s pickup unsure of the difference between the clutch and the gas.
Pity, because when this works it works downright brilliantly. Crowe goes through the gamut of human emotions, the way he cares for his son and relates to those around him while secretly engineering a plan for his wife’s escape something to behold. This is a strong performance that is as complex and as intricate as any he’s given before, and for that reason alone I’m almost willing to give the film a pass just because I truly do want people to witness how great he is for themselves.
I just can’t do it, though. Haggis doesn’t seem comfortable with the material, slowing things down just when they should be speeding up and then doing the opposite just when introspection and quiet are most called for. He fumbles the relationship between John and fellow single parent Nicole (Wilde), doesn’t do enough to flesh out the differences between him and his brother Mick (Michael Buie), adding scenes that frustratingly don’t go anywhere of value for no particular reason that I could discern.
But then he flips the switch and handles other moments with a subtle eloquence that’s touching. There are unspoken scenes between Crowe and Dennehy (playing his estranged father) that speak volumes even though nary a word is expressed, the two actors achieving a delicate symmetry that nearly broke my heart.
Then there is the prison break itself. By and large it’s terrific, the opening moments inside a hospital tense and suspenseful in all the right ways. But even then Haggis almost can’t help but shoot himself in the foot, staging a bizarre moment on the highway with an open car door that nearly had me laughing out loud. For everything he gets right there are at least two or three other moments where things go hopelessly off the rails, and while the director tries to keep the schmaltzy side of the melodrama to a minimum as the film closes in on its finale he’s frustratingly unsuccessful.
There’s not a lot else to say. There’s a solid story here (as the French original clearly proved), and Haggis has cast his film perfectly. But because his grasp on the material is so haggard and disheveled nothing comes together no matter how hard Crowe and all the rest try. The Next Three Days tried my patience and drove me up a wall, and the only break I cared about was the one I was going to make for the exit as soon as it was over.
Film Rating: êê (out of 4)
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