LUDICROUS BUT ENJOYABLE

A movie like The Next Three Days has to be taken only for what it is, totally in the moment, and it can't be given much thought afterwards.  Otherwise, this totally ridiculous but entertaining thriller wouldn't work.  The idea is preposterous -- a husband busts his wife out of prison for a crime she didn't commit -- but because of the way writer/director Paul Haggis goes about doing things, the film stays believable just enough for you to move from scene to scene without really being pissed off.  I am sure you could nitpick this movie to death, and yes, soooo many things need to happen via the contrived plot in such  precise ways that it seems like the movie could break down from some sort of mechanical malfunction.  But as always, Russell Crowe totally demands your attention and does an excellent job portraying a regular guy thrust into an insane situation.  He's long been one of my favorite actors and that'll never change.  Elizabeth Banks (big fan) gets to shade her morally questionable character in some interesting ways which helps in keeping things slightly unpredictable (Haggis's decision to fracture the narrative at times contributes as well).  The Next Three Days has a polished but unshowy visual style (Stefane Fontaine was the cinematographer) and it moves at a consistent pace so that nothing is ever boring.  There's one big action set-piece and I will say this -- I've never seen a car-stunt like that one before. Overall, The Next Three Days is a totally competent genre entry that while never going above and beyond the call of duty, delivers a solid night's worth of cinematic thriller idiocy.  It's a minor film for Haggis (In the Valley of Elah was phenomenal) but one that satisfies on a simple thriller level.