Paul Haggis is a much admired talent in Hollywood. He's directed intelligent thrillers like In The Valley Of Elah and the Oscar winnng Crash, he's the celbrated screenwriter of Million Dollor Baby and Flags Of Our Fathers, a savvy script doctor of the Bond films and the creator of the much loved Due South TV show. So why he decided to direct such a derivative and unremarkable thriller like The Next Three Days is something of a mystery. That's not to say that the film is bad, because in most ways it's a first class production....it's just that the story that this talented group of people gathered together to tell is nothing to get excited about.
Russell Crowe stars as a husband and father whose wife, Elizabeth Banks, gets prosecuted for first degree murder. After all attemps to appeal the decision fail, and Banks tries to take her own life, Crowe seeks advice from successful prison escapee (Liam Neeson in a neat cameo) on how to break the misses out and get away for good. It's esentially a caper movie with everything that entails; a lenghthy planning session, thing going wrong while executing the job and those unmentioned details of the plan that, when revealed, surprise and thrill the audience.
But it's all a little hollow, and lacking in any great character insights or any truly grand, sphincter puckering thrills. Escape by numbers.
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