The Next Three Days is a 2010 vigilante thriller film directed by Paul Haggis and starring
Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks.
It was released in the United States on November 19, 2010 and was filmed on location in Pittsburgh.
It is a remake of the 2008 French film Pour Elle by Fred Cavayé and Guillaume Lemans.
Plot Lara Brennan is convicted of murdering her
boss and is sentenced to life in prison.
The evidence seems impossible to dispute: her car is parked right next to her boss',
she is seen leaving the crime scene seconds before the body is discovered, the murder
weapon has her fingerprints on it and she has the victim's blood on the back of her
overcoat.
Following the failure of her appeal, Lara's husband John Brennan, a professor at a community
college, becomes obsessed with the idea of breaking her out of jail, while their son
Luke ceases to acknowledge her during their prison visits, saddening Lara.
One day, she attempts suicide, and tells John that she cannot survive a life in prison.
John promises that this won't be her life.
John, intent on breaking her out, consults Damon Pennington, a former convict who escaped
prison seven times and wrote an autobiography about it.
Damon, although reluctant to help since he has turned away from his life of crime, advises
John to study the prison where his wife is, warns him that the initial escape will be
easy compared with evading the police after that, and explains what to do:
He must obtain the false passports, new social security numbers, a handgun, and save up as
much cash as he can.
Since the 9/11 attacks, town security has been incredibly increased, and after breaking
her out of prison and the first call, he has only 15 minutes before the city center is
closed up, also counting 35 minutes for all interstates, secondary roads, train stations,
docks and airports being closed.
After a successful escape, they must escape to a country that does not extradite American
citizens back stateside and with a relatively low number of American citizens.
He must also question his resolve, and his willingness to make ruthless ethical compromises
in a split-second If the plan fails, they have to surrender
or they will be shot on sight.
John then starts his preparation.
He buys a handgun, learns to use it and obtains fake IDs.
He also buys and carefully studies the map of Pittsburgh.
To obtain the money, he sells most of his furniture as well as some personal belongings.
At first, he attempts to break Lara out from the prison she's in, but abandoned it when
he almost get caught testing the self-made "bump key" on the elevator.
When John is told that Lara will be transferred in 72 hours to another prison facility in
the north, he becomes desperate and is forced to come up with an emergency plan.
Unable to get the money from his house in time, he considers robbing a supermarket,
but quits at the last minute.
Instead, John tails a local drug dealer to a drug lord, then robs him.
Following clues left behind at the drug lord's house, the police tracks down John's car,
get to his empty house and conclude that he is planning to break his wife out.
The following morning, John tears the map down and stuffs the pieces into several garbage
bags, putting one in the trash outside his home, and the rest in a dumpster some blocks
away, then leave his son Luke at a classmate's house who has a birthday party.
John plants falsified blood work indicating that Lara is in a state of hyperkalaemia,
so she is transferred to the hospital.
He gets to the hospital and helps her escape although she is doubtful and reluctant, motivated
only by the idea of her son being raised without either parent.
John and Lara gets out of the hospital, narrowly escaping the police and make it out of city
center in less than 15 minutes; they then drive to Luke's friend's house to pick him
up.
Finding out his son is at the zoo for the birthday party, John drives there to retrieve
him, by which point the police have already established roadblocks on all interstate routes
to look for "a couple and a child".
John improvises by picking up an elderly couple, and the five drive through the check point
without incident.
John drops off the couple and heads to the airport.
Meanwhile, the police questions John's parents, but they refuse to say anything.
The police examines the map fragments found in John's garbage bag to figure out his destination,
but is misled by the photos and delays the wrong flight.
A detective returns to the crime scene where Lara's boss was killed.
He remembers Lara saying a button popped off as the mugger bumped into her, and deduces
that it must have fallen in the storm drain.
He searches the storm drain but is unable to find the button.
It turns out the button was there, buried under grime, and the detective just missed
it.
At the end of the film, the family arrives at a hotel in Caracas, Venezuela.
As Lara lies down next to him, Luke kisses his mother on the forehead and falls asleep.
John takes a picture of their sleeping faces as the movie ends.
Cast Russell Crowe as John Brennan
Elizabeth Banks as Lara Brennan Brian Dennehy as George Brennan
Lennie James as Lieutenant Nabulsi Olivia Wilde as Nicole
Ty Simpkins as Luke Helen Carey as Grace Brennan
Liam Neeson as Damon Pennington Daniel Stern as Meyer Fisk
Kevin Corrigan as Alex Jason Beghe as Detective Quinnan
Aisha Hinds as Detective Collero Tyrone Giordano as Mike
Jonathan Tucker as David Allan Steele as Sergeant Harris
Robert Diggs as Mouss Moran Atias as Erit
Michael Buie as Mick Brennan Trudie Styler as Dr. Byrdie Lifson
Tyler M Green and Toby J. Green as 3-year-old Luke
Kaitlyn Wylde as Julie Production
Pour Elle The Next Three Days is a remake of the 2008
French film Pour Elle by Fred Cavayé.
The plot of Pour Elle involves a teacher, Julien, who experiences difficulties when
his wife becomes a suspect in a murder investigation and is arrested; Julien does not believe that
his wife is guilty of the crime, and attempts to remove her from the prison.
Pour Elle was Cavayé's directing debut.
The film was one of the main attractions of the Alliance Française French Film Festival
in 2010.
Cavayé explained the plot and motivation for making the film, "We wanted to make a
real human story about an ordinary man doing an extraordinary thing because he's faced
with a miscarriage of justice.
The film also talks about courage- saying how you show courage depending on the situation.
In France, for example, there were good people who did not go into the Resistance against
the Germans."
Cavayé told The Age regarding the remake of the film by Haggis, he is eager "to be
a spectator of my own film".
The director commented on the news his film would be remade by Haggis, "It's a strange
feeling.
I wrote this story in my very small apartment in Paris.
When I saw my name next to Russell Crowe on the net, it was amazing."
Filming In October 2009, Haggis and his staff were
in the principal photography stage of production filming in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
On October 4, 2009, filming of the movie was ongoing and was set to complete on December
12, 2009.
On December 14, 2009, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that filming of The Next Three Days
was going to wrap that day, after 52 days of shooting.
Reception Release
In October 2009, the film was originally scheduled to be released in 2011, by March 2010, the
Australian media company Village Roadshow was set to release the film in Australia in
November 2010.
It was released in the United States on November 19, 2010.
Critical response
The Next Three Days received mixed reviews.
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 52% based on review from 161 critics, with
an average score of 5.9/10.
The critical consensus is: "Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks give it their all, but
their solid performances aren't quite enough to compensate for The Next Three Days' uneven
pace and implausible plot."
Roger Ebert awarded the film two and a half out of four stars and said, "The Next Three
Days is not a bad movie; it's just somewhat of a waste of the talent involved."
Box office The film opened at #5 with a weekend gross
of $6,542,779 from 2,564 theaters for an average of $2,552 per theater.
It closed on January 6, 2011, having earned $21,148,651 domestically.
The film grossed a further $46,300,000 overseas, for a worldwide total gross of $67,448,651,
making it a modest success against its $30 million budget.
See also List of films featuring diabetes
References
External links Official website
The Next Three Days at the Internet Movie Database
The Next Three Days at AllMovie The Next Three Days at Rotten Tomatoes
The Next Three Days at Box Office Mojo