'The Next Three Days'

'The Next Three Days' (PG-13) (2 stars)

Writer: Paul Haggis based on screenplay by Fred Cavaye
Director: Paul Haggis
Starring: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson Olivia Wilde, Brian Denehy, Jason Beghe, Aisha Hinds

I started thinking about something while watching "The Next Three Days" and it wasn't how wonderful the movie was. I thought all this talent and money on a forgettable story. I wish more producers would say no to some films and save the money for a young writer/director who has written a great movie but doesn't have the resources to make it. I am not trying to pick on this movie but there really was no reason for it to be made. It is watchable and well made but when a great writer is attached you expect more. Russell Crowe, who is not as bad here as some critics have said, plays John Brennan. John is married to Lara Brennan, played by the engaging Elizabeth Banks. We first see them at dinner with another couple and Lara is complaining about her female boss. The next morning the police come to their home and arrest Lara for the murder of her boss. She claims her innocence and not at any point in this lazy movie do we not believe her innocence. The movie thinks it is clever by keeping you guessing but come on. John then tries to break her out of prison after she tries to commit suicide.

The only great scene in the movie belongs to Liam Neeson and it lasts just ten minutes. He plays a man who has broken out of prison seven times and wrote a book about it. John comes to talk to him to get pointers. Neeson takes over the movie with a wonderful speech on the finer points of breaking out of a prison. He doesn't hold back either on laying down what dirty things John will have to do to succeed. When he leaves the movie goes back to being average. I was intrigued at first by what happens here but as the movie moves along it becomes more implausible and stupid. There are many plot holes here and moments where you scratch your head because the police and criminals here make stupid choices dictated by a screenplay on auto pilot. There are too many moments that are too good to be true. There is no way some of these things would happen. I know this is a movie but it does take itself seriously and Haggis thinks that there is logic to all this but I didn't buy it.

Elizabeth Banks is a great comic actress and I know she can handle dramatic roles but she is miscast and wasted here. She is an actress who seems real and not like a movie star and this is her appeal. The role she is given here is under written and she really doesn't have many scenes but she nails the ones she has. In the end she doesn't make an impression and that is Haggis's fault. The movie builds a little suspense but it is not great movie suspense. It keeps your attention but in the end the movie falls apart. The chase scenes here come off as competent but not that great. There is also a scene in the end where evidence of Lara's innocence is trotted out. That scene is laughable for putting it at the end for that shows what came before is unnecessary as this film is. Paul Haggis is a very good writer but here he under achieves and he wastes his time and energy on a forgettable movie.