Film Review: The Next Three Days

Summary:

The Next Three Days is a powerful thriller with an interesting dilemma given to John.

More DetailsAbout The Next Three Days (2010)Paul Haggis writes and directs this American remake of the 2008 French crime thriller ‘Anything for Her’. Literature professor John Brennan (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) have a good life, a happy marriage and an adored three-year-old son. But the idyll is shattered when Lara is arrested for a murder she insists she did not commit. For the first three years of her sentence, John struggles to keep his career and family together while pursuing every possible avenue available to him to prove Lara’s innocence. When their final appeal is rejected and Lara becomes suicidal, John decides to take the law into his own hands.

Starring: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, Brian Dennehy, Olivia Wilde

Directed by: Paul Haggis

Runtime: 125 minutes

Studio: Lionsgate Home Entertainment

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Review: The Next Three Days

Paul Haggis’ drama sees the lives of a family torn apart when Lara Brennan (Elizabeth Banks) is found guilty of murdering her boss following an argument at work. Lara’s husband John (Russell Crowe) is convinced of her innocence and returns to the courts to try and appeal for her freedom. When all hopes of releasing Lara are seemingly dashed though, John decides to go against the law and find a way to break his wife out of prison.

Lara’s boss is murdered in a car park after leaving her workplace. It is undeniable that she and Lara had an argument at work and with Lara’s coat having blood on it and her fingerprints being on a fire extinguisher that was used to kill her boss, it is unsurprising that she is convicted. In prison she and John remain close with him visiting when he can though their son grows distant from his mother. John is desperate to reunite his family and turns to former convict Damon (Liam Neeson) who is an expert at escaping from prisons but warns that a life on the run is hell and that he always gave himself up in the end for the luxury of being able to sleep at night without being afraid. John is unwilling to do the same and with advice from Damon he makes meticulous plans not only to release Lara but to get her out of the U.S. before they can be captured. The question is when the moment arrives will John go through with it and will Lara allow him to go ahead with the plan especially with the risk they will put their young son under?

This is a very tense and excellently crafted thriller. There is some ambiguity about the murder of Lara’s boss and you will be left wondering whether John’s wife was involved in the death or not. The moment soon comes for John to break his wife out of prison and what follows is a frantic game of cat and mouse, played against the clock with John fully briefed on how quickly he must get out of the city and abroad otherwise it will be nigh on impossible for him to escape detection. We’re not talking days here, we’re talking a matter of a few hours! Crowe is great in the lead as the troubled father and husband who just wants normality back in his life and is resigned to breaking the law to get his family back together.

The Next Three Days is a powerful thriller with an interesting dilemma given to John. He is never 100% certain if his wife is innocent or not but he aims to set her free regardless. His commitment to his family is so great that John gladly abandons his former life as a law abiding citizen and college professor and becomes a criminal on the run. It’s somewhat ironic that in search of justice he has to break the law first. In the same situation would all of us be so willing to do the same? I’m not so sure.

Verdict: 4/5

(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)