As I watched Russell Crowe plan to get his wife out of jail in The Next Three Days, I couldn’t help but wonder what I would do if my significant other was put behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.
And by the end of the movie, I realized that I would do the exact same thing as Crowe’s character.
The movie starts off with Crowe’s character, John Brennan and his wife Lara played by Elizabeth Banks (30 Rock, The 40-year old Virgin) enjoying a dinner with another couple. But then the dinner turns sour when the two women at the table begin physically fighting. After dinner, the Brennans return home to their son and wake up the next morning going about their usual routine. Just as the wife discovers blood on her jacket and begins to wash it off, police invade the home with an arrest warrant and take Lara to jail for murder.
With his wife in jail for a murder and a son to take care of, Crowe’s character struggles with balancing the two and comes up with a plan to bail his wife out of prison.
I have to be honest and a sap here but watching the Brennans’ emotional pain of not being together pulled at my heart strings and made me root for Crowe’s character stealing drug money, buying drugs and planning ways to crack the prison system. The acting of both Crowe and Banks had me believe in the whole situation and I felt like I was part of the couple’s pain and heartbreak when the Brennans are told that the wife is being transferred to another prison outside of their hometown. This is the pivotal scene that gives the movie it’s title, and Crowe’s character rushes against time and the law to try and get his wife and son out of the country and safely together.
The idea of getting someone out of prison occupies most of the movie’s plot, but what I enjoyed the most is the normalcy of John Brennan. Crowe’s character is the anti-hero in this movie as he battles the law with dwindling funds, a Toyota Prius as a getaway car and a job as a teacher. A police officer trying to catch Brennan even comments on the average Joe style of the movie’s criminal.
“What kind of criminal drives a Prius?”
Another interesting aspect of this movie is that it features some minor characters that had me thinking of where I had seen them. Daniel Stern (Home Alone), Kevin Corrigan (Goodfellas) and Liam Neeson (Star Wars) are some of the minor characters who make brief appearances, with a screen time combined of no more than 20 minutes.
Probably the most unbelievable and disappointing aspect of the film is the ease it took for Brennan to get past several layers of police, security and roadblocks. Watching the film I often found myself on the fence about believing the ease Crowe goes through to get out of the country.
I won’t ruin the ending of the film but overall I thought that if this movie sucks me in and makes me root for John Brennan and his family, then it must have been believable enough to make it a good action-packed film.
Check out The Next Three Days at the Aurora Theatre starting this Thursday until Sunday playing at 9 p.m.
