11/5/2010 -- From CGee: I lucked into a very last minute screening pass yesterday so I headed down to DC and it was well worth struggling with the rush hour traffic in the rain! The Next Three Days is certainly a 'keeps you on the edge of your seat' thriller but what makes it different is that it's a thriller with a heart and conscience; the love that binds the Brennan family together give the film its believable heart and Russell as John Brennan gives the film it's conflicted conscience that allows the viewer to feel the emotional weight and toll of the consequences of his actions. Russell did a wonderful job and I think this is his best contemporary role, similar but different from Cal McAffrey. SOP had a more 'cluttered' plot with lots of tangents you needed to pay attention to that didn't allow you to solely concentrate on Russell's performance. One of the best things about N3D for me was that without the 'noise' of a dense storyline I got to sit back and just enjoy watching Russell do what he does best - create a character with a lot going on internally and emotionally and then without much dialog he allows the audience to understand and empathize with his character's journey. The film does build slowly but as a review said, once the chase is on you are very invested in hoping the Brennan's get to where they're going. I felt Paul Haggis did a good job of tightly framing the film's plot/premise and then trusting his actors to do the rest. I thought Elizabeth Banks did a wonderful job in a very tough role of having to do difficult and integral emotional scenes without much fanfare or time. But for me it was just a pleasure to watch Russell work. At the end what quietly took my breath away was that the man John Brennan became as a result of the choices that he made was there to seen in Russell face, in silence in the final scene. |