Yes a well acted movie that needs an ending it's slow pace results in an unwelcome open ending. Shock horror she gets out... after watching Crowe's character flap around for over an hour and a half - the ending should close out 1. she's shot by cops, 2. proves innocence or 3. is caught with himself shot or visa versa.. or 4. Twist of all twists she's turns out to be a crazed killer ... none of which happen ... what a damp squib ending ....

*****SPOILERS**** An overly chunky an fat a** looking Russell Crowe plays English Collage teacher John Brennan who's wife Lara, Elizabeth Banks, has been sent up the river for 20 to life in the murder of her boss Elizabth Gesas, Leslie Mirrill, on suspecting of her making eyes on Lara's dreamboat of a husband. Not taking it lying down Brennan who's sure that she's innocent plans to spring Lara from the joint, or jail, and take off with her and their son Luke, Ty Simpkins, to South or Central America to avoid capture. Before Brennan pulls all this off he heads up to this sleazy bar in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, from his home in Pittsburgh, to get professional advise from jail brake expert Damon Pennington played in a cameo role, where he didn't have enough screen time to kill anyone, Hollywood #1 Macho Man Liam Neeson. Given all the ins and out in breaking out of prison and being under the radar Brennan together with Pennington concocts this far out plan to free his wife who incidentally doesn't claim she's innocent of the crime that she was convicted of!Following Pennington's expert advice Brannan gets involved with some of the worst of the worst criminals that almost leaves him dead, by him being taken advantage of by them, until he finally wises up and stops playing Mr. Good Guy. Knowing that he needs lots of cash to pull, getting his wife out of jail, this off Brannan rips off this me-th dealer, who earlier had his head busted by two of his goons, by setting fire to his me-th lab as well as him inside. Now with everything he needs to make a clean gateway for himself wife & son,lots of money fake passports drivers licenses as well as birth certificates, Brannan make his escape to far off Toronto Canada, well out of US jurisdiction, to take a plane to South America as well as to freedom. That with the Keystone Kop like Pittsburgh police and FBI agents hot on his tail going in a different direction.****SPOILERS**** It doesn't take much for Brennan to make his perusers look ridicules with the man in charge Pittsburgh police Let.Nabulsi, Lennie James, falling for every trick or false clue in the book that Brannan leaves him ending up getting out of both the USA & Canada with his wife & son untouched and unnoticed by the elite, what a joke, law enforcement agencies of both countries. What comes as a both surprise as well as happy ending is that it's revealed, in a very confusing flash-back, who really murdered Elizabeth Gesas, remember her, who by then was totally forgotten about in all the action leading up to it. The very at first overweight looking Russell Crowe must have lost 30 to 50 pounds by him sliming down in all the action scenes, without a body double, he was in the movie. Which made me wonder if that, the exercise, was the reason he took the part which seemed to be, in all the better films he made in his career,well beneath his acting talents and the only reason I could think of him being in the movie in the first place!

It is well known that Russell Crowe is the reason this movie was watched. I was personally disappointed about the title: 'The Next Three Days' because it denotes something not found in the movie.Similar with 'The Day After Tomorrow', a typical person would think its a horror film about an impending doom scheduled to take place at that time.The wife knew all along that she was innocent but in an act of fury implicates herself in the murder. That's stupid. She has a son out there. Did she care about her?She never made an appeal or told her correct side if the story. I found that to be dumb. We only learn about her innocence at the end but she knew all along.It seems as if she wanted to go to prison and put her family through a great deal of pain - and for what reason??? What did she want to achieve by staying in prison for a crime she didn't even commit???What's up with that? This part of the storyline really did not work for me at all.And she tries suicide later on....oh LAWD.

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.