The Next Three Days

The Next Three Days is a tense drama directed by Paul Haggis who has had some great success as a screenwriter (Casino Royale) and some dire (Quantum of Solace). The premise is Elizabeth Banks is sent to jail for the murder of her boss and after her final attempt at appeal fails tries to come to terms with the idea of spending the rest of her life behind bars away from husband Russell Crowe and her young son.

Seeing her desperation Crowe takes the decision to break her out of jail and the main body of the film follows him around as he gathers all the knowledge he needs to pull it off.

The first two thirds of the film are very tense and I had a feeling of utter dread throughout the film. My thoughts were this was either going to go horribly wrong or against the odds succeed.

Then comes the wrapping up in the last 40 or so minutes. Sloppy plot devices to create a chase element just don't make sense. The cops make amazing connections from very little evidence adn this is where I stopped caring. Had they attempted to weave in some genuine reasons why the cops of all a sudden focus on Crowe then it would fit in with the rest of the film. But instead we get some kind of paint by numbers chase.

It's a fairly good film but at times I wasn't sure if I really wanted to watch it as I wasn't getting a good vibe and there are stupid decisions made that had me shouting at the TV. Could have been much, much better.

The story is of John Brennan (Crowe) a married man with one son, his life is perfect and rosey, then one mornig his wife Lara (Banks) is arrested for the murder of her boss, one she says she never commited.

the family is torn apart, and John spends his months filling for appeal after appeal, but to no avail, under the weight of knowing his wife will spend the next 20 years in jail, John climbs deeper and deeper into a shady underworld working out how to spring his wife from jail.

Good film this one, crowe is on form as is Banks, well worth watching