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Crowe launches his own mission impossible in 'The Next Three Days'

The most significant contribution of Paul Haggis' lengthy and occasionally intense crime drama “The Next Three Days” could be the elevation of community college literature professors to the hallowed ranks of action heroes.

Noted Australian tough guy Russell Crowe plays one in “The Next Three Days.”

His name is John Brennan and he teaches such works as “Man of LaMancha,” about a man who fights windmills and never cedes idealism to reality.

When Pittsburgh police arrest John's wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) and charge her with murdering her boss, John never stops believing in her innocence, and spends years trying to win her freedom after her conviction.

It takes a shout-out from his attorney (the briefly seen Daniel Stern) to force him to see the obvious: “She's never getting out, John!”

After his beloved and depressed Lara attempts suicide, John becomes desperate enough to consider the inconceivable: that a pudgy man of inaction like himself would plan and execute a daring prison break to honor a promise to Lara that incarceration “will not be your life.”

Strangely, “The Next Three Days” is a much more cinematic work than another current prison drama “Conviction,” yet far less gripping with less engaging characters.

The first two thirds of “Next Three Days” shows us how John arrives at the logical decision to spring his wife from jail, and sets in motion the “Mission Impossible”-like plot mechanisms to achieve this goal and somehow escape with their young son Luke (Ty Simpkins).

In the last third, Haggis cuts loose with an amped-up action sequence, an intense and gratifying escape laced with lucky breaks, split-second timing and nail-biting surprises that dictate changes in John's well-made plans.

Yet, “Next Three Days” feels just a tad too orchestrated and manipulative to ascend into the ranks of a first-rate thriller.

Haggis directs “Next Three Days” a remake of a much shorter 2008 French thriller (96 minutes) titled “Anything For Her” with technical sheen, but without fleshing out the ethical or moral consequences of John's actions.

After all, he works as a lit professor who constantly discusses themes and ethics of make-believe characters. How does he reconcile his actions?

Significantly, John never asks Lara if she committed the crime.

He has such faith in his wife's soul that he never even thinks to ask the question.

Crowe communicates his devout feelings so well that we believe in his belief of Lara.

That should have been sufficient for this movie.

But no, “Next Three Days” blows its delicious sense of ambiguity by revealing the “truth” in a ridiculous and hammy segment where a police detective re-imagines the original murder scene, and how it could have come down exactly as Lara testified in court. Maybe.

It's an awkward, silly, added-on scene that erodes the movie's most powerful element: Crowe's utterly convincing conviction about his wife's moral fiber.

Apparently, John believes in Lara a great deal more than Haggis' movie believes in him.

Oh, and don't be messin' with those community college teachers, either.

<p><b>'The Next Three Days'</b></p>

<p>Rating: ★ ★ ½</p>

<p>Starring: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Daniel Stern, Brian Dennehy, Liam Neeson</p>

<p>Directed by: Paul Haggis</p>

<p>Other: A Lionsgate release. Rated PG-13 for drug use, language, sexual situations, violence. 122 minutes</p>

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