The Shawshank Redemption and The Next Three Days Scuttlebutt

Both Andy and Lara are innocent and wrongly convicted of a murder. However, it takes you some time to discover that Lara isn’t guilty (about ¾ into the movie after she tells her husband that she did it), but from the get go, you can pretty much assume that Andy never killed his wife (same as Days, about ¾ through the movie, we hear another prisoner actually admit he’s guilty of the crime). Both films also center on the breaking out of jail, but in very different ways. In Shawshank, we don’t find out until the end that Andy’s been planning his escape all along. He has no spouse, friends, etc. so he must rely on himself to get out of prison. In Days, the main character (John), the one who isn’t in jail, is the one that we spend time with. His wife, God knows why, has no intention of busting out or pleading her innocence. It’s only when John literally forces her to come with him does she decide to finally break free. Both films also span over a great deal of time. In ShawshankI believe we spend over a decade with these characters and in >Days, we spend about three years with them. All in all, The Shawshank Redemption and The Next Three Days share subtle similarities (jail breaks, wrongly convicted characters), but it’s within these similarities that there are differences (one character wanting to break out, the other accepting her fate, etc.).

The Next Three Days Review

Every once in a while, a taught, suspenseful thriller will work its way into the multiplexes under everyone’s radar and become a surprise critical and financial hit. It’ll come just in time for awards season and be considered one of the best of the year and become a classic. It’ll feature dynamic performances, explosive action sequences, shocking revelations and an edge-of-your-seat finale. This is not one of those times.

The Next Three Days centers on everyman John Brennan (Russell Crowe) and his wife, Lara (Elizabeth Banks), who's life is completely pulled from them when Lara is arrested and imprisoned for murder. John is pushed to the breaking point and is forced to break his wife out of jail. After breaking her out, they almost get hit by a semi-truck. It's very exciting. 

Walking into this film, I had absolutely no interest and expected another, middle of the road thriller that was anything but thrilling and that’s exactly what I got. The funny thing is, I was actually enjoying the thing for a good forty minutes. As a drama, it worked and even though it was cheesy, unbelievable and completely predictable, I was into it. It wasn’t until the movie couldn’t figure out what the hell it wanted to be that it really started to suck.

For the most part, I kind of like Russell Crowe. While I definitely wouldn’t say he’s one of my favorite actors or that he has a huge acting range, he can play a sympathetic and relatable character well and here is no exception. Elizabeth Banks is also surprisingly decent in her role as Crowe’s wife and chief murder suspect. The fact that she can play anything from her role as the kinky Beth in The 40-Year-Old Virgin all the way to this is respectable. We also get some nice dramatic tension in the first third of the film. Director Paul Haggis (Crash, In the Valley of Elah) obviously knows how to play up the emotional end of the film and when the movie was dealing with that portion, it worked for the most part.

As for everything else, though, the film completely fell on its big, illogical ass. For starters, this movie is wildly uneven. It’s like the filmmakers had no single idea of what the hell they wanted to do, so they just did everything. The Next Three Days is basically your everyday drama/murder mystery/vigilante action/prison break thriller. Yeah. There was no real consistent tone to the picture, which I felt was a little more than confusing and really let me down, especially after such a competent opening. It also feels way too long and the muddled plot manages to make it feel even longer based on the idea that if there’s a certain goal (yes, he’s trying to bust his wife out of prison, but you’d be amazed at all the other stuff that goes on) to continually work toward, you have a story. However, with the multiple side-missions and subplots making their unnecessary way into the film, it absolutely kills my interest, along with my patience. While no performance here was bad, Olivia Wilde has absolutely nothing to do here and seems just as confused as I was wondering what the hell she had to do with anything. While looking insanely hot, she’s instantly forgettable. There’s also a short scene with Liam Neeson as a famous escaped convict that’s arguably the best part of the movie, even though that’s not saying much. The promos for the film understandably push the fact that he’s in this, but his role is honestly nothing more than a cameo, which is pretty damn frustrating to say the least. Lastly, I just couldn’t believe what was going on here. Not only is what Russell Crowe doing here a little creepy, it’s shockingly morally questionable. In a film like this, we need to see him pushed to the breaking point and be forced to bust his wife out. Maybe to push the stakes, she could be sentenced to death row, front of the line or something, but I just couldn’t invest myself in his determined plan to free his wife.

Overall, this feels like a movie to have on while you do your laundry or work on your taxes. For all the impressive talent behind the film, one would think this would be a nice contender for some Oscars, but ultimately, it’s just another average entry into an underwhelming year.