If this were the 1950s The Next Three Days would be a fast paced film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis or Fritz Lang. As it is, it’s 2024 and The Next Three Days remains a fast paced  actioner that defies the logic of normal films.

As written and directed by Paul Haggis, The Next Three Days constantly displays new characters and situations all throughout the plot, and challenges the viewer to figure out what will happen next. The movie is based on the French film Pour Elle.

The Next Three Days is so intellectual that we never actually see the title during the film. We only see text that informs “The last three years” or “the last three months,” or “the last three days,” all supported by a blinking red light motif that reminds of the brake lights of a car.

The film stars Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks with supporting turns from Olivia Wilde and Brian Dennehy and Kevin Corrigan. The latter player, Corrigan, is such an interesting and necessary actor to so many films and yet he’s always a supporting actor in the larger scheme of things. Dennehy doesn’t have many lines, in fact his first few scenes he doesn’t even speak. So when he finally spills forth it’s that much more profound.

Crowe plays a father whose wife has been wrongly accused of a crime that lands her in prison. The circumstantial evidence is weak but yet she’s convicted and sentenced for the crime of murder. Crowe becomes determined to break her loose from her cell and enlists the help of an author (Liam Neeson in a brief scene stealing moment) who’s written about prison , in his attempt to free her. Basically Crowe crosses the line that demarcates him from normalcy to become himself a felon and bust his wife free before she’s transferred from county jail to prison. One of his ruses employs faking medical records. Not ironically another film currently in release I Love You Phillip Morris, based on true events, recounts a prison break using faked medical records.

The Next Three Days actually informs the aud on how to break into a car using a tennis ball. It’s on Youtube and some 7^th grade student probably posted it and knows more about breaking and entering than adults like the one portrayed by Crowe. Crowe may be one of the best actors ever to commit to film; you have to go back to Errol Flynn to find another actor that can bounce between pure action and thoughtful drama like he does. Another moment in the film teaches the aud how to file down a key to use it as a skeleton key to open any lock. This is a seditious film to be sure.

Haggis toys with our expectations, introducing new characters all throughout the film, letting us ponder over whether the marriage between Crowe and Banks is made in heaven. Once the escape becomes reality the film becomes a whirlpool of action choreography. We’re constantly bounced between scenes that confound our guesses. The Next Three Days pays off in ways that define pure cinema.

– Michael Bergeron