5/10
Writer/director Paul Haggis (of Crash fame) clearly thinks of himself as someone who wouldn't descend to making a trashy thriller. Which is a pity, because this might be more fun if it was less thoughtful and long winded.
It's not that this is a bad movie, in fact it's reasonably enjoyable. It's just that it can't make up its mind exactly what it wants to be - or else wants to be two different things. John and Lara Brennan (Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks) are a happily married couple with a young child, but life goes mental on them when she's arrested for murder and put away for life. John refuses to believe she is guilty and works hard for her release, but it becomes clear that's not going to happen through any legal means. Which leaves... you guessed it.
The French film called Pour Elle/Anything For Her is the basis for this US remake, and in the interests of fairness, I should say that this new film is better than the old one, because the French one wasn't that great. I should also say that the last third is exciting, that Crowe and Banks do a good job, and that I was never bored. Fair enough?
Because we still have the problem that it goes on too long, and the reason it goes on too long is that Haggis is trying to introduce us to mild mannered teacher John Brennan, and then create a transformation whereby Brennan can credibly become action man Russell Crowe; in other words a family drama becomes an action movie. I can understand why he would want to do that, but frankly he needn't have bothered. The point of the film is the escape, and everything else is just foreplay. But in this case the foreplay is over-extended. There's the early family scenes, the shock of the arrest, the visits to prison, troubles with the son, the teaching of Don Quixote (his job), and then meeting Liam Neeson cos he's an expert on escaping, checking out stuff on the internet, making a balls up of his first efforts, and so on and so on, and we still haven't got to the escape. When it happens, we're thrilled, but until then, the temptation to shout "Get on with it," is almost irresistible.
Crowe, Banks and Haggis are all capable of more interesting and thoughtful work than this, and would be better employed doing so. at a time of year when there are so many interesting films being released, this is going to get lost in the Oscar rush.
