The Next Three Days

"No prison in the world is airtight."

The Next Three Days is a slow building thriller about college teacher Russell Crowe planning out an escape plan to break his wife out of prison after she was arrested for a murder Crowe believes she has been wrongfully accused for. 

At first viewing, i thought the film was satisfactory but i watched it again recently and on second veiwing, i enjoyed it more. That usually happens, i enjoy movies when i watch it a second time. 

Paul Haggis, director of Academy Award winning Crash, does a good job conveying the life Crowe's character goes through planning a way to take his wife to a new life. He manages to make this film very grim, very dull as though Crowe's has virtually no chance of 'saving' his wife and resuming normal life with their young son. 

Russell Crowe, my favourite actor, does a commendable job. Not his best performance but at least he keeps you locked into the film to see what he does to ensure he can live his life with the people he loves together. Elizabeth Banks plays the wife, who suffers from the fact that she will never see her son grow up. Banks plays distressed and emotional wreck very well in her character. The chemistry between Crowe & Banks conveys the relationship the two have. 

Another important character is Liam Neeson's character, an escapee who Crowe interrogates to learn how to carry out his escape plan. I loved the one scene between the two, it was done very well and Neeson did a great cameo performance. 

As i previously described, the story starts slow and i think it moves at a good pace so it doesn't overload the veiwers with too much. We are constantly reminded about Crowe's devotion to rescuing his wife from injustice. After finalising the plan, Crowe carries out with interesting techniques and dangerous intentions, going where he would never have thought he would go, just to save his wife. 

Because of the story & what's at stake, the emotions are running high within the characters. Crowe takes dangerous risks with severe consequences to save his wife as does Banks who goes through aperiod of whether wanting to live or die. 

The final 40 minutes is what makes this film enjoyable, which is when Crowe finally carries out his escape plan. It is a thrilling, rivetting, fast paced chase at the end, escaping prison and escaping the authoroties, which I really enjoyed. One of the best on-foot chase scenes. 

More thrilling and more emotional than you think, The Next Three Days features good performances, a tense story with a rivetting conclusion, this is one film any Russell Crowe fan needs to see.

★★★★☆