Jailbreak remake isn’t as captivating as its original

Two years ago, French writer-director Fred Cavaye held audiences in a vice-like grip with his tautly-paced thriller, Anything For Her (Pour Elle).

Anchored by emotionally raw performances from Vincent Lindon and Diane Kruger, the film expertly charted one ordinary man’s battle against a supposedly flawed legal system.

In its original form, the story concentrated just as much on the mental anguish of the characters as the intricate mechanics of an attempted jailbreak, which provided the film with its exhilarating climax.

Oscar-winning film-maker Paul Haggis (Crash) was clearly impressed too, and he has repolished this modern European cinematic gem for English-speaking audiences, but the subtleties of Cavaye’s original are lost in translation.

The Next Three Days mimics the opening sequence almost frame-for-frame, but Haggis invariably puts his stamp on the material.

He tarries on the dark streets of Pittsburgh, where the crusading husband sets his elaborate scheme in motion, and introduces an action sequence which is brilliantly-engineered, but completely superfluous.

Lara Brennan (Banks) is a model businesswoman, wife and mother with a doting husband, John (Crowe), and a young son, Luke (Simpkins).

The family’s world implodes when police detectives Quinn (Beghe) and Collero (Hinds) arrest Lara for the murder of her boss.

Evidence is compelling – including fingerprints on the murder weapon.

Lara is sentenced to a lifetime behind bars for a crime she maintains she did not commit.

John naturally pins his hopes on an appeal, but when the law fails him, he concocts an elaborate plan to spring his wife from jail.

“I promise you, this will not be your life,” he tells Lara tearfully as he uses inside knowledge from an ex-con (Neeson) to identify a tiny window of opportunity for escape.

For audiences unfamiliar with Cavaye’s film, The Next Three Days is a well-constructed, if slow-burning, thriller about a husband’s unerring love for his wife.

Crowe and Banks are solid, and there are touching scenes between John and his father (Dennehy), who silently gives his blessing to his son’s plan.

However, once you compare Haggis’s version to the original, deficiencies are clear – the lack of dramatic momentum, weaker characterisation and the implausible transformation of humble English teacher into a traditional action hero.

Furthermore, a coda involving a storm drain is preposterous, providing a neat and tidy resolution that eradicates the ambiguities of Cavaye’s incarnation.

Hollywood doesn’t like to trip over any loose ends.