Spending 'The Next Three Days' with Russell Crowe

What is a "Russell Crowe movie"? In 1999 that term meant "The Insider," a weighty drama starring Crowe as a middle-aged tobacco executive. In 2000, however, it meant "Gladiator," a blood-soaked Roman epic with Crowe as the gluteus-kicking Maximus. The former film succeeded with critics, the latter with the public.

Ever since, Crowe has tried to find a middle ground, which, unfortunately, has often meant playing motionless men in action-oriented movies. As a hostage-negotiator in "Proof of Life" he mostly wielded a phone; in the CIA thriller "Body of Lies" he played a rotund bureaucrat; in "State of Play" his shlubby reporter left the gunplay to others.

In "The Next Three Days," Crowe finally does some shooting and running, but don't go expecting Jason Bourne. Crowe plays John Brennan, a Pittsburgh community college professor whose wife, Lara (Elizabeth Banks), lands in prison for a murder she didn't commit. When their final appeal fails, John turns to plan Z: Breaking her out.

Much of the film is compellingly realistic: John patiently learns how to doctor photos, make keys and break into a car. Much of his info comes from YouTube (where else?) but he also interviews an escaped con, bracingly played by Liam Neeson. These deceptively mundane scenes jitter with anticipation for the gambit to come.

Writer-director Paul Haggis, working from the 2008 French film "Pour Elle," also wants this project to be a slam-banger (the subway chase), a police procedural (paper trails) and a neat mystery (the missing button). In the end, though, "The Next Three Days" is another Russell Crowe movie - slow-moving, heavyset and a little too serious.