Olivia Wilde, as a young mother, and Russell Crowe in “The Next Three Days.” (
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“The Next Three Days” resembles another quietly involving little thriller: “The Town.” Only this time, the loot is a woman instead of a sack of money — now we’re talking about a Banks job.
Elizabeth Banks, a hilarious presence on “30 Rock,” proves she has dramatic flair as Lara, an angry Pittsburgh professional locked in a state of office combat with her boss.
When her workplace enemy becomes suddenly and violently dead, Lara begins to look like a murderess. Also: Her fingerprints are on the murder weapon. The state of Pennsylvania orders her to change her plans for the next 20 years.
The imprisoned Lara has no hope, but she does have a husband: John (Russell Crowe), a professor at a community college. His special subject? Don Quixote. Exhausting all appeals on Lara’s case, he seeks some advice from a career con (Liam Neeson) who has broken out of prison seven times. How, John wants to know, might jailbreak be done à la Pittsburgh?
Among the surprising things I learned in this movie is that, if your wife should go away on a murder beef, you should immediately invest in a supply of marking pens and start drawing enormous diagrams and formulas on the wall. Obtain maps, inquire about false identification, sell everything in the house (then sell the house) to stockpile bribe money and try not to think about the alarming evidence against your wife.
I didn’t buy how “The Next Three Days” plays out — but I almost bought it, and that’s good enough for a thriller. Writer-director Paul Haggis (“Crash”), who based his script on France’s “Pour Elle,” invests considerable care in the genuine affection between John and Lara and in the ordinary details of John’s life.
The non-glam Pittsburgh locations and Crowe’s controlled desperation help to make the movie convincing as a simple domestic drama that ever so gently slips into a caper.
“The Next Three Days” is the kind of worthy project that makes studios shy; “meticulous!” isn’t much of a pull-quote to use in the advertising.
As a procedural, the film is exact and sober, laying out each step of the process by which you might learn to pick a lock or break into a car. It’s a little sad, in cinematic terms, that the answer to both these questions is to consult the appropriate YouTube video. (Horror movies have lately suffered the same drama deflation; whereas the damned used to have to find the dustiest book of witchy lore, now they just Google the solution to the curse). And there are hours of honorable and diligent procedurals on television each week.
But TV doesn’t have Russell Crowe. Few actors can so readily convey both intelligence and toughness. When he finds himself armed and sitting in front of a bank, or holding a lit match over a pool of alcohol at a meth lab, Crowe is a formidable presence. How far will this placid schoolteacher go?
His is essentially the only fully realized character, though. Lara is aloof and mysterious, while Neeson has only a cameo. Brian Dennehy does well with few words as John’s nearly silent father, but mostly the movie is John’s tireless devotion. His wife tells him he’s too perfect and it’s hard to disagree: In the midst of all the madness of his plan, he remembers to pack her moisturizer.
Still, his iron will creates some breathless moments, most of them wisely saved up for a richly realized final act. “The Next Three Days,” which may be the first movie in which a Prius gets shot up (“What kind of criminal drives a Prius?” wonders one cop) and in which the details of a child’s birthday party invitation could be as important as a getaway route, strikes an arresting balance of the ordinary and the unlikely. Crowe’s John is halfway between Everyman and Superman.
kyle.smith@nypost.com