The Next Three Days (Contains Spoilers)

The Next Three Days (2010).

uh dude, there's ... something on your head?

WARNING, SPOILERS BELOW.

"Out of the blue, businesswoman Lara is arrested and convicted of murder, her teacher husband John the only one who believes her innocence. When appeals are exhausted, Lara becomes suicidal, and as their son is suffering, John decides to break her out."

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this film. There were some parts that I guess I liked and there were some parts that I really, really did not like. Some of the bigger things that I really didn't like is a pretty big spoiler, so in the interest of being spoiler-free, I've put up a spoiler warning above.

I watched this film because I was home at the weekend visiting my old and ageing parents and this is the kind of film that they like to watch. It had been recorded onto the planner, so with a stomach full of Chinese food, I settled into the couch to let the standard thriller-y-ness wash over me. Unbeknownst to me at the time, this is an American remake of a 2008 French film called 'Anything For Her', which I will probably watch at some point.

So now we have Russell Crowe and Elisabeth Banks, being all married and lovey-dovey and such. After a dinner with John's (Crowe) brother, the couple return back to their (not so) humble abode, and proceed with the lovemaking - they needed to shove a quick sex session in before the police break in the next morning and arrest Lara (Banks) as she holds her jacket with the blood stain of her murdered boss! Proceed montage of legal-things. This is a movie of montages. Legal montage/visiting Lara in prison montage/preparing to break Lara out of prison montage. Oh, yeah, because that's the basis of the plot apparently - having had the legal systems fail him, John decides that he has to take matters into his own hands and break Lara out of prison (without asking her about it or running stuff by her or anything okay cool).  

also Liam Neeson turns up?

So yeah, having exhausted the various pleas and paperwork he can file to have his wife, who swears didn't kill her boss, released from prison, the final verdict is delivered. Sentenced to life, she has been found guilty. Feeling at a loss, he does some research (in the form of a montage, who would have guessed) and met up author Damon Pennington (Neeson), who successfully escaped from prison. Damon then gives out a bunch of statistics and advice to help John achieve his goal. I realise at this point I've simply been narrating what happens in the film, but the thing is, is that this film is so ridiculous that it's difficult for me not to just explain everything that happens and just go, "right, RIGHT?!" 

But that's not good reviewing. Fine. I'll review and be critical, is that what you want?! What do you think this is, a film review blog?! ... Point taken. 

also Olivia Wilde is in this? what?

Olivia Wildes character is bewildering to say the least. She's in about three scenes, each lasting about a minute each and she's only in the film to act as a temptation for John (woah, hot lady alert showing interest, is John gonna cheat on his wife with her?!) and to add to the tension at the end of the film when John leaves his son in her care and when he comes back to pick him up (mid break-out), he's not where he thought he would be - DUN DUN DUN.

My main kind of weirdness with this film though is when Lara gets arrested. It's highly implied that she didn't commit the murder - it's the whole, victim is wrongly accused for crime so that's why the audience is rooting for her husband to succeed in breaking her out! Then about halfway through the film, in a conversation with John, Lara says, "You didn't even ask if I did it." and then John is all, "Because I know you didn't do it." to which Lara is like, "Well then, you'd be wrong." then leaves, all dramatic like. So, she just confessed to the murder. Now I'm no longer rooting for the escape to go well. There's been barely any screen time with Lara, so I've not exactly bonded with her as a character enough to look past this issue and still be all, yeah! break out of prison! No. All that's happened now is that I'm kind of rooting against/not bothered if they get caught because she's a murderer. She's in prison serving time for a murder she committed. But then, at the end, the detectives involved with the original investigation of the murder return to the scene (three years later) and the audience is then shown a scenario in which Lara did not commit the murder and this all hinges on a button being at the crime scene (the scenario in question alludes to the argument Lara presented in court). The detective looks around and sees that the button may have gone down a drain and lifts it up and looks. Nothing is there. He leaves. But then, once the drain falls back into place it loosens an object that was stuck in a crevice - the button! So wait, she didn't do it? That's grand and all and I guess Lara might have said she did it to spite John (because John is a rather peculiar character), but John doesn't know that. As far as John knows, he's knowingly breaking a murderer out of jail? Morals! Also, the button was still in that drain after three years? Three years worth of rain and snow and hail and stuff didn't wash it away? That drain was never lifted by anyone for any reason in those three years that would've meant the button would've been dislodged and washed away? 

also this happens?

 My other issue with the film is when John is breaking Lara out of prison, it's really weird. Like, when she sees him, she clearly only holds some kind of contempt for him. He then emotionally manipulates her into breaking out and then forces some kisses on her and it's all just kinda icky feeling. Also, when Damon Pennington is talking to John earlier in the film, he stresses that if they aren't out of the country within 35 minutes, they're screwed. And yet a whole hour after having broken out, they manage to escape. Also the scene in the gif above was so fuckin' weird. John decides to head straight for the airport, leaving their son behind because they don't have enough time, so Lara (who attempted suicide earlier in the film) straight up opens the door and tries to kill herself. John grabs her jacket just in time and then the car is spinning around and they nearly get crushed by a lorry and the car comes screeching to a halt. The two then sit outside on the ground for a minute. Then they hold hands for a bit. Then they get in the car without saying a word. Neither of them acknowledging anything that has happened thus far. John doesn't bring up the fact that she confessed to the murder (although he does previously tell her he doesn't believe her. (On what grounds though, the evidence is overwhelming AND SHE CONFESSED?)), Lara not saying anything about having to pick up their son, neither of them mentioning the fact she just tried to kill herself. Okay.

interesting wallpaper design

Also, the tone of this film is a little off-centred. I think the opening conversation is meant to be funny or something, I'm not sure. There was meant to be a serious scene where John gets mugged but I laughed (oops) but I think altogether the word to sum up the tone is grey. Just kinda grey. John also gets way too comfortable with the notion of killing people way too quickly. Exacting revenge on the men who mugged him, he manages to kill some people, burn down a house with people he knew were inside and dump a body. Then he beats up some people and I think shoots someone when he's breaking Lara out, I'm not entirely sure. 

To not completely shit over this film, it did have its good points too (sort of). The break out sequence was done quite nicely and I felt the tension that Paul Haggis was going for. I did get somewhat caught up in the dramatics of it all and found myself allowing the film to make it's various mistakes and turning a blind eye to gaping plot holes here and there. Also the scenes with the kid, Luke, were always pretty sweet and I did feel really sorry for him throughout the film - his mother goes to jail when he's very young (ends up getting bullied at school because of it), his father becomes distant and obsessed with this project of breaking Lara out to the point that he sells all their furniture, the house, everything in order to fund things like new passports/plane tickets/driving license etc, he ends up spending a lot of time at his grandparents house because his father can't seem to find the time to care for him and so on and so forth. 

I think there has to be specific conditions you have to be under to watch this film. I think it needs to be a saturday night after a very, very long week. I think you need to be filled to the brim with Chinese food (or takeaway food of your choosing) and I think you need to be half dozing whilst watching it. It's not a horrible film. It's mediocre, a quick google of the title will lead you to this conclusion. Again, much like 'Kill Your Darlings' it's pretty damn meh.