Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Next Three Days

A couple is out for dinner after the wife has had an argument with her boss. The next day, the police are serving a warrant and arresting her for murdering her employer. Her husband, a professor at a community college in Pittsburgh, labors tirelessly for 3 years to see to her release all the while raising their young son by himself. When all options appear exhausted, he begins to labor tirelessly at devising a plan to break her out. Then, she learns that all her appeals are exhausted and will be moved to a penitentiary from the local holding facility. This forces him to put his plan action immediately. The Next Three Days is an intense thriller from writer/director Paul Haggis which could serve as a how to escape prison video. When the professor makes his decision, the film becomes extremely intense and engaging and the escape itself bumps things up a couple notches. Russell Crowe does fine work again, Elizabeth Banks is adequate as his wife, and I really liked Liam Neeson who only appears for about five minutes as a professional prison escapist.
sidenote: I hate to give Pittsburgh credit for anything, but with The Dark Knight Rises filming there, it looks like a really cool city to film and I look forward to that one with even greater anticipation.