REVIEW | The Next Three Days (2010)



Writer-Directer Paul Haggis of Oscar Best Picture Crash gambles and screenplays a remake of a 2008 French suspense-thriller Pour Elle. The Next Three Days puts together Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe and Zack and Miri Make a Porno's Elizabeth Banks in a dramatic and suspenseful plot to entice the movie-adrenaline junkies.


Crowe and Banks play husband and wife John and Lara Brennan, with a young son, and whose normal family life is suddenly disrupted when the local cops barge into their morning breakfast and handcuffs Lara for the murder of her female boss. With all evidences pointing to her--- fingerprints on the murder weapon, blood on her coat, her heated argument with her boss the night before the murder--- it looks like there is no more hope for Lara to get out of her life imprisonment. Triggered by his intense and undying love for his wife and his one hundred percent conviction of her innocence, John sets out a plan to break her out of prison. And that's when the thrills should have begun.

The Next Three Days moves in a slow, tedious fashion; there is no giddy, exciting feeling as Crowe plans out an escape for his wife. And as he fumbles through tutorials, books and seeks dangerous men for help before he executes his wife's prison break, instead of watching wide-eyed and fearful, you get this prickly sensation of boredom, the impatience creeping in, and you battle the urge to fast-forward the movie. However, in the end, the film was able to redeem itself in a last minute edge-of-the seat, smart cat-and-mouse chase.

The Next Three Days is basically centered on John's indomitable love for his wife; he plays that too perfect husband. Crowe's character also brings back to mind Mel Gibson's frequent roles as an ordinary family man (with expressive blue Aussie eyes) who suddenly finds himself in an extraordinary mission-- except that Mel Gibson's films are more powerful, more dramatic and action-packed.

The film is half-boring, half-suspenseful, and half-touching. If it's showing on cable TV, then you may find yourself changing the channel, and then checking back to see how the film ends. 

By the way, Liam Neeson makes a cameo.


1 out of 5 stars


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