The Next Three Days

Escape movies come in many forms. There are prisoner of war movies like The Great Escape or Stalag 17, action films like Con Air or the futuristic Escape from New York. There are even true stories like Papillon or Midnight Express. But what makes The Next Three Days unique is that it is not about a criminal, a political prisoner or a soldier, it is about a housewife and a schoolteacher, ordinary people who have been put in extraordinary circumstances.
 
Elizabeth Banks (4o Year Old Virgin) plays a wife and mother who had a very bad day and publicly fought with her boss. When her boss ends up dead in a parking structure that she was just seen leaving, she is convicted of murder and placed in jail. Russell Crowe (Gladiator) plays her husband and he is convinced that she is innocent even when all the evidence says otherwise. He believes in his wife and refuses to give up, fighting for her release until all avenues have been exhausted. Financially ruined he is grasping at straws when his despondent wife tries to commit suicide. In a tearful pledge he makes a promise to her, “This will not be your life.”
 
Russell Crowe’s John Brennan is not a criminal, or a military man, up to now he has had no experience with the justice system. He doesn’t have the background or the training to pull off a prison break, but he does have the determination. Taking the scholarly approach, John Brennan does his homework. He reads, searches the Internet, explores historical escapes and interviews an ex-con (Liam Neeson) who has escaped multiple times and has written a book about it. John even discusses great escapes in literature with his students borrowing from their research and dissecting their ideas. He is becoming an expert on prison escapes, now he just needs to find the nerve.
 
What made this film interesting for me is its relate ability. What if my loved one was in prison? Could I summon the courage to break them out? Could I master the technology, lie and manipulate in order to free a loved one? What if it was a Red Dawn situation where an invading force was holding my family, could I be conniving and deceptive for the right cause? I enjoyed exercising this premise and I found Russell Crowe quite believable in this role.
 
Another plus for this film is that the John Q. Public element makes the chase scenes even more harrowing because these are not hardened criminals escaping the law, it’s John and Lara who live down the street. It’s my teacher, my co-worker or my uncle, if I saw this on the news I would be shocked and dumbfounded. These are not bad guys, it’s you and me. I found this approach fresh and interesting. I really liked what Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby) has done with this film and in case I ever have to I’m planning my escape right now; just in case.

Rating: First Run A new twist on the prison escape