Movie reviews this week looks at the suspense thriller The Next 3 Days, starring Russell Crowe (Gladiator) and the gorgeous Elizabeth Banks (30 Rock), as a couple John and Lara Brennan with a young son Luke played by Ty Simpkins.
We join the movie as John and Lara are having dinner in a restaurant with another couple, Mick and Erit played by Michael Buie and and the gorgeous Moran Aitas (You don't Mess with the Zohan) respectively. During the meal Erit makes some innuendo regarding John, to which Lara doesn't take kindly to, this sets the scene by director and screenwriter Paul Haggis, the screenwriter of the award winning Million Dollar Baby and Crash; for the audience to be in two minds about Lara's character.
The plot takes a surprising turn, when back at home, the police pay a visit to Lara, and arrest her for suspicion of murder to the shock of all.
It transpires that the victim is her boss, and that the police have witnesses stating she has had arguments with her boss, but the damning evidence is the victim's blood on her coat as well as her fingerprints on the murder weapon, not to mention a witnesses sees her speeding car, moving away, while the victim lay dead; to which even their sympathetic lawyer states "there is no way she is getting out of prison".
This leaves John with only one other option, to break her out of prison. He meets Damon Pennington played by the stalwart Liam Neeson (Taken), who has escaped from numerous prisons, and has written a book about his experiences; for advice on what to do in the theoretical possibility that he would need to break someone out of prison from the city, on hearing that John lives in Pittsbugh, Damon sighs with melancholy, that since 9/11 every major city had to have a lock down policy, and Pittsburgh is one of the cities that can shutdown all major roads in fifteen minutes, Damon also tells him that he would need a lot of money, as he puts it, "if you run out of money, you run out of friends", and to be prepared cover all angles, to look for regularity in the tasks of the guards, and where there is a lapse in these duties is where an opportunity exists.
You wonder if John can actually pull it off, he seems a mild mannered school teacher, and having the guile and toughness for what he is attempting to accomplish might be way above him.
Paul Haggis captures the despair, and desperation of John and Lara superbly, and although you are rooting for them both, you can't help but wonder if something bad is just around the corner. As suspense thrillers go, The Next 3 Days will keep you at the edge of your seat throughout.
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