John (Russell Crowe) and Lara (Elizabeth Banks) is an idyllic married couple in The Next ThreeDays. They have good jobs, a nice house, an adorable young son and an undiminished erotic interest in each other. Suddenly, the cops burst in as their boy looks cries "Mommy!" Lara is taken away, arrested for murder. The case against her seems so certain that their friendly lawyer throws up his hands. No one will believe in Lara's innocence except John. Eventually he will stop at nothing to free her from jail.
The Next Three Days (out on Blu-ray) is a Hollywood movie in search of a Hollywood genre. It can't decide if it wants to be a love story or a thriller, a hardboiled crime picture or a weepie playing on the heartstrings of parenthood. It dabbles in all of the above andaside from a nicely choreographed chase by car, foot and subwaysucceeds at none. The problem seems endemic to a script that must have been rewritten many times to suit many expectations. The virtue of The Next Three Days lies in Crowe's performance, where he submerges his charisma in an everyday middle class American character confronted by a preposterous scenario. He plays it well and in a low-key, anchoring the story as it rambles on.
