About a decade ago, Russell Crowe was on a career roll that was almost unprecedented in Hollywood history, scoring Best Actor Oscar nominations three years in a row for 1999’s “The Insider,” 2000’s “Gladiator” and 2001’s “A Beautiful Mind,” while taking home back-to-back trophies for the latter two films. He may be Australian, but he had built a persona beloved worldwide as both a cinematic chameleon as well as an Everyman extraordinaire, able to slip into seemingly any kind of role – from a doughy corporate whistleblower to a Roman warrior to a schizophrenic yet sensitive genius – with sympathetic aplomb.
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But aside from the vastly underrated “Cinderella Man” five years ago, Crowe has slipped off the rails a bit. He made several missteps that proved largely unappealing to the masses of moviegoers, only starting to rebound this year with the $100 million-grossing yet still disappointing “Robin Hood” (full disclosure: looking back, this is the one positive review this year that I regret givin, as the film has not held up well in memory due to its overly ponderous tone). But in his new film “The Next Three Days,” Crowe digs deep and pulls off his most appealing performance in years. Working under the always-masterful Paul Haggis (“Crash,” “Million Dollar Baby”), who fills the shoes of writer and director in this one, Crowe plays John Brennan, an English professor at a Pittsburgh community college who has a young son and an incredibly sexy and supportive wife, Laura (Elizabeth Banks).
He’s content with his lot in life, but Laura hates her boss so much that when the boss winds up murdered, she gets pegged as the prime suspect and is railroaded into a 20-plus year prison sentence. As months and then years tick by and John sees their son growing up ever more distant and alone, he is frustrated by the fact that all types of appeals have been exhausted and nothing legal will ever appear to get her out.
When Laura attempts suicide, John reaches the end of his rope and decides the time has come to break her out at all costs. Thus, he embarks on a literally quixotic quest – the film expertly draws a parallel with the moral issues inherent to the “Don Quixote” story – to research how to conduct, fund and plan the perfect prison break. And when that moment comes, Haggis’ utterly brilliant script and direction (based on the French film “Pour Elle” by Fred Cavaye and Guillaume Lemans) hooks the viewer and pulls their strings in ways both subtle and strong, resulting in an intelligent and rewarding thriller that would do Alfred Hitchcock proud.
As good as Crowe is in this film, Banks is even better. So far in her career, she always appeared to be a broad-comedy lightweight in films like “Zach and Miri” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” But here she takes what could have been a thankless role as the damsel in distress and makes Laura a fully alive, three-dimensional and utterly unpredictable character who can shift her emotions on a dime. And backing her and Crowe up is a stellar cast of actors who were apparently so eager to work with Haggis that they filled in even small roles with star power – especially Liam Neeson in the small but key role of a man whose record of committing several prison breaks leads John to seek advice and inspiration from him.
The other most remarkable aspect of the film lies in the fact that it’s not a heavy-handed, pulse-pounding affair. Instead, it takes a slow, thoughtful, methodical approach to the elaborate plot that John hatches and then lets it unspool with a growing force that pays off with stunning results. Even though this is “just” a thriller, it might very well wind up as one of my ten favorite films of the year.
“The Next Three Days” opens everywhere Friday, November 19th.