The Next Three Days, the latest thriller from
acclaimed writer/director Paul Haggis (Crash), begins quite well. A
brief prologue introduces us to John and Lara Brennan, a couple whose love for
each other is matched only by their love for their son Luke. Not long after,
Lara is arrested and imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit, prompting John to
develop an intricate plan to rescue his wife and reunite her with their son.
None
of this is extraordinarily unique, of course, but The Next Three Days
manages to captivate regardless: Russell Crowe is convincing as an
everyman-turned-renegade, Elizabeth Banks exceeds expectations cast against
type and early on we're promised an escape so exhaustively detailed it might
rival those famous set-pieces in the Bourne films.
Although
it certainly doesn't innovate in terms of plot, The Next Three Days does
something a lot of other thrillers of this type tend to neglect: it asks
questions. Bubbling just below the surface is the nagging question of Lara's
innocence: did she do it or not? Should John rescue her even if he's not sure?
What happens to Luke if they fail? This feeling of uncertainty permeates the
film and in that way it fits neatly into Haggis' canon.
The
Next Three Days doesn't get everything right, though. Its big problem is
that Haggis never finds the right place to finish, so the film runs about
twenty minutes too long, whipping past several good stopping points to arrive
at an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion. He seems rigidly determined, like in Crash,
to have every comment, every clue come full-circle by the end, but the payoff
isn't there. The final escape is a lengthy cat-and-mouse game that, though
wildly exciting at first, eventually loses steam. Neeson is criminally
underused and Banks briefly shows her inexperience in a dramatic lead role as
she stumbles through an important scene halfway through. Crowe looks at his
shoes too often in order to convince us he's distraught, but he still delivers
his best performance in years.
There's
a lot to like here and The Next Three Days was certainly better than I
had anticipated. It's intense, superbly acted and a lot of fun. Don't expect a
masterpiece, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
