Paul Haggis’ The Next Three Days is a remake of the French thriller Anything For Her (coincidentally one of the first films I reviewed on this website. Click the title to go to the review). If the first film has been a decent watch, seeing a remake can be an odd experience. You don’t really want to see a scene for scene copy, but at the same time you don’t want it to go so far off what made the original great that the film ends up a poor imitation of its superior cousin. See Pelham and Let Me In for evidence of that. If you’ve see Anything for Her, or just read my review, then the plot for The Next Three Days is almost identical (that of a normal schmo planning to break his wife out of prison), with a number of scenes exactly mirroring the original film. However, this isn’t a problem as it’s well directed by Haggis and if you haven’t seen the first film its fairly riveting stuff. Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks take over the lead roles and give steady, if unspectacular performances. So, any improvements on the French film? Not many, but as the source material is so good that’s not really a problem. What is a problem is, at the end of the film, Haggis’s decision to show whether Banks’ character is guilty or not of the murder she has been jailed for. It’s a huge miss-step. Though it was hinted at in Fred Cavaye’s film it was left to the audience to decide. I honestly can’t believe an American audience wouldn’t have been able to cope with the same scenario. It’s one of the main talking points of the film! Just in case the screenplay didn’t spell it out clearly enough, Haggis then compounds the problem with an utter ludicrous scene revolving around a tiny piece of evidence, just to make we are comprehend whether she is guilty or not. Overall, if you haven’t seen the original, then this is still worth your time. You just have the nagging feeling though it could have been even better.
The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Loses a mark due to the ending, but for a remake this isn’t bad at all. Rating: 6/10.
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