Haggis' smart, prison-break "The Next Three Days" showcases the city
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Director Paul Haggis filming at the county jail.
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Like his professorial protagonist in "The Next Three Days," Paul Haggis does his homework.
It was after settling on Pittsburgh as the backdrop for his film that he started writing and was able to incorporate such keystones as the Allegheny County Jail, Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium (with those photogenic polar bears), subway system, working- and middle-class neighborhoods, playgrounds, bridges and much more.
- Starring: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks.
- Rating: PG-13 for violence, drug material, language, some sexuality and thematic elements.
PDFYou don't become the first person to write back-to-back Best Picture Oscar winners in "Million Dollar Baby" and "Crash" without being smart, and Mr. Haggis is -- and so is his screenplay, which turns on small, surprising but salient details.
The movie, based on the French film "Pour Elle," stars Russell Crowe as John Brennan, a community college instructor whose wife, Lara (Elizabeth Banks) is arrested for murder and convicted. Despite circumstantial evidence, she insists she did not kill her boss, a woman she had called a "useless cow."
Three years in jail and the rejection of appeals take their toll on John, Lara and their young son (Ty Simpkins). When Lara becomes despondent, John takes a page from the "Don Quixote" text he teaches and embarks on a quixotic quest to try and break his wife out of jail.
This knight-errant appears to be a Pirates fan, like the director, so he's accustomed to long odds.
Mr. Crowe may play the mastermind, but this Everyman is closer to his Washington, D.C., reporter in "State of Play" or whistle-blower in "The Insider" than to Robin Hood or General Maximus in "Gladiator." He is a professor who turns to the Internet to figure out how to pop a car lock or locate a jailbreak expert.
At 133 minutes, "The Next Three Days" feels about five or 10 minutes too long, and it teases the audience with the question of Lara's culpability until it tips the scale in one direction. A more ambiguous ending might have added a sophisticated layer of mystery to the story, but this seems designed to give the audience a definitive answer.
First Published November 19, 2010 12:00 am
