The Next Three Days | B-

When a man's wife is wrongfully accused of murder and sentenced to life in prison, he must do everything in his power to get her out. But when all legal means fail and the evidence is stacked up against her, the only plausible option left is to bust her out. Paul Haggis crafts a fairly interesting story with much potential and fine acting, but unfortunately, The Next Three Days clumsily treads the line of intricate and boring, and fails to completely captivate the audience, thus becoming an average film.

College professor John Brennan (Russell Crowe, Gladiator) desperately attempts to prove his wife Lisa's (Elizabeth Banks, Role Models) innocence after she is wrongfully accused and incarcerated for the murder of her boss. After years of fighting, he is told by his lawyers that there is no chance of his wife ever being released. Desperate and determined, John begins planning a way to break Lisa out of prison and escape the country with her and their young son. He consults Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson, Schindler's List) a hardened prison escapee, who advises John on how to survive after breaking out. John's spirit and character are put to the test as he meticulously plans every detail of the nearly impossible mission.

The Next Three Days felt somewhat incomplete and can leave viewers wanting more. The movie exposed Crowe's transformation from a timid professor to a desperate fugitive and meticulous planner. But there was a lack of action, and the moments where there was action seemed unrealistic. Most of the attention was given to the planning of the escape and John's struggle of acquiring money and fake documents. The great escape itself was quick, failed to impress and felt like a poor knock-off of The Fugitive.

The acting in the film was very up to par. Crowe and Banks performed at their usual high level and gave their characters personality, which helped the audience feel for them. Unfortunately, the lack of a good back-story and not enough interaction between Banks's and Crowe's characters make the film impersonal at moments and will have some feel a lack of justification for rescuing Banks' character. Despite this, one of the main driving forces in The Next Three Days was some excellent cinematography and camera work that gave the film a suspenseful quality.

There has been an influx of action movies lately, where the main character is on the run from an overwhelming enemy and must use ingenuity to prevail. The Next Three Days, it seems, tries to be original by not having a flood of action scenes and an almost-superhuman protagonist. But at the same time, it doesn't explore the characters' emotions enough to be a deep drama about human nature. The acting is of a high caliber and the cinematography is first-rate, but a poor storyline is the Achilles' heel of The Next Three Days.