You don't see a lot of movies set in Pittsburgh, huh? Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys and, um, that's about it. (Thank goodness for the books of Michael Chabon, right?) So three cheers (and rivers) for Paul Haggis' The Next Three Days, the movie destined to put Pittsburgh on the Hollywood map... by giving Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson some terrible accents.
Based on the 2008 French film Pour elle (Anything for Her), The Next Three Days feels like Haggis' attempt at Alfred Hitchcock. Either that or Law Abiding Citizen. Crowe -- saddled with some kind of "American" accent -- plays an everyman who sees his wife (Elizabeth Banks) tossed into jail for a murder she didn't commit. There's a suicide attempt and that sets Crowe into Prison Break territory: He's going to get her out of jail by any means necessary. That includes enlisting the help of Neeson, playing a former prison breakee with a laughable Noo Yawk accent. Maybe that's part of his cover?
Anyway, it all looks perfectly fine for what it is -- though if it didn't star Crowe, Neeson and Banks, would anyone care? -- and while Haggis is regarded as a slick hack, he has done some good work as screenwriter on the Daniel Craig Bond films. Let's hope this one is more like Bond and less like Crash.
VERDICT: Maybe.