THE NEXT THREE DAYS is the American remake of a French thriller about an ordinary guy who has no option but to bust his wife out of prison and go on the run when she starts experiencing mental health difficulties. Watching this, I couldn't help but wonder what the original movie would have been like and how much better it could have possibly been.

THE NEXT THREE DAYS is certainly a passable thriller by Hollywood standards as it maintains a tense realism throughout. Russell Crowe is well cast as the dedicated family man willing to do anything it takes to get his family back together and the thriller aspects of the story, particularly the prison break elements, are well handled.

However, one real problem the film has is the padding; it seems go on and on and on without ever going anywhere, especially in the early on scenes which feature Crowe trying to make some contacts on the streets. Paul Haggis handles the direction well, but he needed to employ a ruthless editor when it came to the length. I'm not quite sure how this happened, since the original French film has a relatively short running time in comparison.

The other problem with Elizabeth Banks, who just doesn't work as a convincing, serious actress. She was fine in SLITHER, but in this and MAN ON A LEDGE she feels badly out of her depth. The nadir of the film comes during the inexcusably cheesy moment where she's hanging out of the car and screaming; I've rarely seen such nonsense outside of a B-movie!

Three years ago, Lara Brennan (Elizabeth Banks) is arrested for murdering her boss Elizabeth Gesas. Her life with her husband John (Russell Crowe) and her infant son is shattered. The evidence is damning, a possible witness isn't found, and any appeal is unlikely to work. John decides to break her out of Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburg with lots of preparations. It's nearly impossible and then he is surprised by Lara's transfer in 3 days. He has to rush his plans before he's ready.

The first time around, the movie seems like a well written if somewhat long. After another viewing, the story is doing a lot of things that are too neatly written. It doesn't feel real. The first two thirds is the preparations and the various detours. The final third is the actual escape. The movie is over 2 hours and it's a bit slow at times. The preparations don't raise the tension all the time. It needs to be tighten greatly. Paul Haggis is not able to sharpen this movie to a finer edge. The escape has a nice intensity. The acting is superb and even the minor roles are filled with great actors. The movie tries to do a lot. There is a back and forth about her guilt or innocence. There is another woman. There are cops investigating him. And then there is the drug deal robbery. Maybe it's too much. Again it needs to be tightened somehow.

When a film that portends to be realistic with real down to earth characters pushes the envelope too far, I just can't buy into it. Oh, it looks good, and I am as big a Russell Crowe fan as there is, but the plotting and the results of the action were just beyond my willingness to suspend belief. It is a standard plot. One character is accused of a crime and actually convicted. The other is left with the task of finding enough to save that person. We have the obligatory escape from prison and then a series of efforts to overturn the unjust verdict. Everything is just so pat and predictable and often too "easy." Things just don't fall into place like this and I know it's only a movie. But the competition is fierce and demands our acceptance. Perhaps I'm too serious, but other than the potential satisfaction of justice restored, it wasn't quite up to snuff.