[5.50/10] The Next Three Days (2010)

The Next Three Days (2010)

In "The Next Three Days", life seems perfect for John Brennan until his wife, Lara, is arrested for a gruesome murder she says she didn't commit. Three years into her sentence, John is struggling to hold his family together, raising their son and teaching at college while he pursues every means available to prove her innocence. With the rejection of their final appeal, Lara becomes suicidal and John decides there is only one possible, bearable solution: to break his wife out of prison. Refusing to be deterred by impossible odds or his own inexperience, John devises an elaborate escape plot and plunges into a dangerous and unfamiliar world, ultimately risking everything for the woman he loves. Academy Award-winning film director Paul Haggis' latest thriller "The Next Three Days" disappoints with slow and uninvolving first half, genuine lack of intensity and surprisingly incoherent plot. However, after a dull and rather boring first half, "The Next Three Days" into a fairly gripping thriller, that while hardly plausible, succeeds to entertain its audience, as it moves along at much brisker pace and offers more action. Paul Haggis is not on the top of his game here, and it shows. He's direction is muddled, labored, unimaginative, and often confusing as he fails to bring the thrill and excitement - the obligatory elements of this genre. The action and chase scenes are very few and far between, but they're well-staged, nicely-shot and interesting to watch. Acting-wise, "The Next Three Days" is also a mixed bag. One of the most overrated actors in film history, Russell Crowe, turns in a rather flat performance as John Brennan, a frustrated, yet determined man who desperately tries the impossible to free his beloved wife. Crowe definitely possesses some charm and he has a strong presence, but yet, his trademark awkwardness, blank face and expressionless eyes, make him seem a bit stiff and uncomfortable on screen. I've always wondered why everybody finds him a great actor. Elizabeth Banks is a notch-better as John's possibly mis-accused wife, as she successfully conveys hope, anger and despair, but yet her performance is a bit too neurotic and over-the-top at times, and is therefore not completely satisfactory. "The Next Three Days" features a great cameo by Liam Neeson, who spends only 5 minutes on screen, and yet his appearance remains truly memorable. Moderately engrossing and fairly well-acted, yet incredibly uneven, unimaginatively-shot and mostly thrill-free, "The Next Three Days" is nothing more than just a hit-and-miss thriller, that has the ambition to deliver, but never fully manages to absorb the audience into the story.