Saturday, February 25, 2017

The Next Three Days

Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks stars in this "prison break-out" thriller written and directed by Paul Haggis.  John (Crowe) and Lara (Banks) are married, with a son.  Lara is arrested for the murder of her manager, and John's world is turned upside down.  After repeated legal proceedings, John has run out of options to prove Lara's innocence.  Desperation sets in for John, and he plans to break Lara out from prison.

The film goes to great pains to show us how the internet is rather helpful in plotting prison break-outs, but does John have the nerve and fortitude to go through with it.  The script is peppered with near misses, and plenty of obstacles for John to overcome.  Crowe does a good job acting, even without dialogue, his facial expressions tell a lot about what his character is going through and wrestling with, as he goes down a path that has but a slim chance of succeeding.

The direction is competent, nothing groundbreaking, but for its running time, it's actually paced pretty well.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.

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