Writer/director Paul Haggis's prison-break drama is so full of plot holes that it defies all suspension of disbelief.
Based on Fred Cavayé's 2008 French thriller "Anything for Her," Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks play husband and wife John and Lara Brennan. They form a tight-knit family unit with their six-year-old son Luke. John works as a Pittsburgh high school English teacher.
Meanwhile, Lara toils in a high-rise office under an insufferable female boss. Said boss wakes up dead in a parking lot where Lara was spotted at the time of the crime. Prison doors slam on Lara, who faces down a life sentence she isn't mentally capable of enduring. John gets in touch with a certain Damon Pennington (scene-stealer Liam Neeson), a prison-escapee-turned-author, for a crash course in how to break Lara out and escape to another country.
Here's where the movie turns due South. Although Pennington specifically tells John he will need help from others in order to be successful, John goes the DIY route. YouTube teaches him an erroneous way to open car doors with a tennis ball and how to craft a "bump" key to access the jail's secured elevator system.
Haggis makes a colossal oversight in not expanding Liam Neeson's Damon Pennington subplot as a resource for John to execute the difficult mission. Then we could at least believe in John's ability to pull it off, and have the experience of hearing from an "expert" about planning every step.
Instead, Paul Haggis phones in the would-be suspense elements in favor of some heavy emoting from Russell Crowe. "The Next Three Days" ignores its own rules.
Rated R. 113 mins.
