Film Review: Russell Crowe Goes Hitchcockian in ‘The Next Three Days’

CHICAGO – The suspense thriller is a delicate art that depends on situational realism and unlikely circumstances cohabiting in a heart-pounding plot. The Master of the genre was Alfred Hitchcock, who often put ordinary people in these nail biting scenarios. Director Paul Haggis (”Crash”) uses this theme and does the Master proud in “The Next Three Days.”

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Russell Crowe is John Brennan, a nebbishy Pittsburgh college instructor with a hard-charging wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) and young son. The film opens with a flashback to a birthday dinner with John’s brother and sister-in-law. There is an outburst at dinner, and Lara is overzealously angry. The confrontation turns ugly, and John leads his wife out of the restaurant.

There is something strange in the context of the outburst, as Lara discovers a spot of blood on her coat. She is washing the stain out the next morning as the police burst in, arresting her and charging her with the murder of her boss. Lara had a very public disagreement with her superior the night of the murder (the same night as the restaurant incident) and circumstantial evidence points completely to her guilt. The justice system does the rest, and Lara is sentenced to life imprisonment.

The sentence wakes up the usually sad sack John, who berates their attorney (Daniel Stern) unmercifully and hits a wall of frustration when the lawyer tells him the case cannot be appealed successfully. This memory brings him back to the present, where John is now searching for other means of getting his beloved wife out of prison, including the usually impossible notion of breaking her out.

One concept is planted in John’s head. The gathering of knowledge that it takes to attempt it leads him to a breakout expert (Liam Neeson), an attractive single mother (Olivia Wilde) who may provide some distraction and his estranged father (Brian Dennehy) who seems to know a little more than he lets on. The next three days will determine everything.

”The Next Three Days” opens everywhere on November 19th. Featuring Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde, Daniel Stern and Brian Dennehy Screenplay by Paul Haggis, directed by Paul Haggis. Rated “PG-13”