The Next Three Days (Review)

How much a viewer is able to appreciate the new Paul Haggis film The Next Three Days is directly proportional to how much they are willing to suspend their disbelief. In a way, it's an alternative to Conviction, in which Hilary Swank attempted to get her wrongfully convicted brother out of prison the long way: getting her GED and going all the way up through law school. In The Next Three Days, Russell Crowe goes about it the far less subtle way, which entails guns and car chases. Neither film works very well.

It all begins when working wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) is convicted of murder and sent to prison. Her husband John (Russell Crowe) refuses to admit that she is guilty, and once all options run out he begins a determined plan to bust her out of there. After consulting with jailbreak expert Liam Neeson, he begins creating what I call a Wall of Obsession, where movie characters completely cover a wall in maps, photos and newspaper clippings which illustrate their unhealthy obsession with something. Often a sign of insanity, Walls of Obsession are mostly reserved for serial killers and normal citizens who are driven batty over something they have no business being involved in.

There’s a great deal of planning before the prison break itself, presented in a slow-moving, episodic fashion. Within an hour John goes from harmless teacher to criminal, and the process never really rings true. This would be fine if the film devoted itself to being a silly thriller in the vein of Salt, but instead The Next Three Days seems to be aiming higher. The problem is that it’s aiming at something that isn’t there. Putting on a serious face does nothing for anyone.

Eventually, as you would expect from a movie about a man who breaks his wife out of prison, John breaks his wife out of prison. At this point it becomes a chase movie, but not with enough of the necessary thrills. John certainly knows what he is doing, and that part is relatively fascinating, but as a sequence it doesn’t provide the adrenaline the scenario calls for. There are two police officers who show up halfway through merely for Crowe to have somebody chasing him, and these men are never more than one-dimensional procedural types.

The Next Three Days was written and directed by Paul Haggis, who gave us the Best Picture-winning Crash, which is either incredibly overrated or underrated, depending on who you ask. In his films, Haggis relies too heavily on heavy-handedness and feels the need to make his point clear at all costs. In Crash, which I merely liked, Haggis reminded you scene after scene about racism. In The Next Three Days, Haggis wants you to make sure that this decision to break his wife out of jail is a hard one. Haggis is desperate to make sure that you know John’s afraid of losing his son, no wait; JOHN’S AFRAID OF LOSING HIS SON as a result of the robbery.

That said, Haggis is more than capable of creating quality entertainment. He received screenwriter credits for Million Dollar Baby, as well as the great Casino Royale. (He also helped pen the not-so-great Quantum of Solace.) The Next Three Days was an opportunity for Haggis to direct his own action-thriller. There’s a good movie that could be made here, but the finished product doesn’t show it. Instead of a quick-moving jailbreak thriller, Haggis gives us an overlong film that introduces us to a number of unnecessary characters and situations. When he finally tries to crank up the energy in the third act, it’s too little too late, and compared to the rest of the movie it just seems ridiculous. The Next Three Days isn’t boring, but it’s minor, unnecessary, and artificial. Once over, it is quickly forgotten. A great deal happens, but none of it is worthwhile.

Rating:  (out of 4)