( EW.com ) -- `` The Next Three Days '' follows an ordinary guy named John ( Russell Crowe ) as he executes a wildly complicated plan to spring his wife , Lara ( Elizabeth Banks , ) from prison , where she has been locked up for a murder she says she did n't commit . Jailbreaking is not John 's forte -- he 's a community-college professor in Pittsburgh and he drives a Prius . But all judicial appeals have failed , and the couple 's young son is so very sad . So , spurred by love , despair , and belief in his wife 's innocence , John turns to desperate measures . First , however , he does some Internet homework that leads him to Damon ( Liam Neeson , ) an ex-con-turned-author who provides expert advice on the art of escape . Damon 's how-to-break-the-law lesson -- as ludicrous as anything else in this enjoyably zigzaggy exercise in accumulating peril -- grants Neeson the fun of experimenting with an American ex-con accent for his one scene . It also sets up the movie 's real strength , which is generating escalating waves of plot tension and misdirection as John , heeding advice , makes his jail-busting moves . Writer-director Paul Haggis ( `` Crash , '' ) who adapted `` The Next Three Days '' from a 2008 French thriller , `` Pour Elle , '' clearly has Alfred Hitchcock 's wrong-man-in-wrong-place psychological archetype in mind as John weaves all over Pittsburgh . Lara , for her part , has no idea of her husband 's plan -- the usually sunnier Banks is an interesting , counterintuitive casting choice -- and when she finds out , she adds her own complications . Soon the chase becomes its own perpetual-motion machine , one that ticks down to the last second . With cops closing in , there 's passport forgery , robbery , lock picking , shooting , and driving too fast while behind the wheel of a Prius . There 's also a bit of tampering with medical records , the inevitable follow-up to Lara 's demonstration in Act 1 , Scene 1 that she 's diabetic . Throughout , Crowe marshals his unique physical gravitas -- his way of speaking with his eyes while remaining very still and quiet -- to bolster Haggis ' more sentimental premise that the character represents any average John who loves his family deeply enough to declare , Screw the system ! We 're outta here ! While Crowe throws his serious weight behind the notion of a man angry , weary , and bereft enough of his ordinary life to take drastic steps , the movie throws obstacle after obstacle his way and says to the audience : Oh , he squeaked through that ? How about this ? B+ . See more about `` The Next Three Days '' at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2010 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
The movie 's real strength is generating escalating waves of plot tension and misdirection . The usually sunnier Banks is an interesting , counterintuitive casting choice . There 's passport forgery , robbery , lock picking , shooting , and driving too fast in a Prius .