A married couple's life is turned upside down when the wife is accused of murdering her boss. Her husband John would spend the next few years trying to get her released, but there's no evidence that negates the evidence against her. When the strain of being separated from her husband and son gets to her, John decides to find a way to break her out.
Russell Crowe
John Brennan
Elizabeth Banks
Lara
Brian Dennehy
George Brennan
RZA
Mouss
Moran Atias
Erit
Olivia Wilde
Nicole
Jason Beghe
Detective Quinn
Nazanin Boniadi
Elaine
Tyrone Giordano
Mike
Ty Simpkins
Luke
Liam Neeson
Damon
Jonathan Tucker
David
Lennie James
Lieutenant Nabulsi
Michael Buie
Mick Brennan
Helen Carey
Grace Brennan
Remy Nozik
Jenna
Aisha Hinds
Detective Collero
Leslie Merrill
Elizabeth Gesas
Daniel Stern
Meyer Fisk
Rachel Deacon
Duty Nurse
Derek Cecil
Dr. Becsey
Kaitlyn Wylde
Julie
Kevin Corrigan
Alex
Jeff Hochendoner
Alex's Thug Buddy
Lauren Haggis
Lyla
James Ransone
Harv
Denise Dal Vera
Eugenie
Glenn Taranto
Hospital Security Guard
Veronica Brown
Female Guard 1
Lisa Ann Goldsmith
Female Guard 2
Alissa Haggis
Junkie
Allan Steele
Sergeant Harris
Zachary Sondrini
Photoshop Kid
Etta Cox
Notary
Barry Bradford
Jail Guard (Entry Hall)
Rick Warner
County Jail Captain
Quantia Mali
Phone Operator
Trudie Styler
Dr. Byrdie Lifson
Fabio Polanco
Phone Repairman
David Flick
Male Nurse
Sean Huze
Prison Guard
Tamara Gorski
Hospital Nurse
Patrick Brennan
Hospital Guard
Brenna McDonough
Brenda
Melissa Jackson
Airline Clerk
Patrick McDade
Airport Security Chief
James Francis Kelly III
Lab Van Driver
Jackson Nunn
Prison Visitor (uncredited)
Director, Screenplay
Paul Haggis
Original Film Writer
Fred Cavayé
Original Film Writer
Guillaume Lemans
July 3, 2013
1
If Paul Haggis is going to keep on making movies, would somebody do us all a favor and sign him up for a basic screenwriting class? I mean, please, this film could be a lesson all on its own on how not to write a decent screenplay. Its all in here: one-dimensional characters, supremely poor pacing, multiple threads that go absolutely nowhere and completely implausible action sequences.
And, you know, it's just a B-thriller. It's not like I haven't seen these mistakes time and time again. What really bothers me is just how highly it thinks of itself. It not only thinks it's interesting (which it isn't whatsoever), but it thinks it's smart, edgy, and it probably even thinks it's clever. I mean, there are so many characters who function for exactly one plot point and are then left behind in the dust. For example, this one chick who's name I forget (did they ever even say her name?) is introduced fairly early on in the film, and looks even like Russell Crowe's love interest. We see the very, very beginnings of a meaningful relationship forming and then it turns out that she was only a device to fill in a little potential plot hole (trying not to spoil the movie.) The same with Russell Crowe's parents, there are a handful of scattered scenes with them showing little glimpses of a meaningful relationship, and then the same exact friggin' thing is done, they're used as a simple (and illogical) plot mechanism.
It's almost like one of Paul Haggis's friends was reading the script and said "hey, Paul, this is completely ridiculous, how could they possibly manage to _________" and Haggis wrote in these characters as devices to satisfy the issue, realized they were one-dimensional, and wrote in a pseudo-intelligent relationship (which doesn't in reality make them any better.) And this is how the first 2/3 of the movie moves so dreadfully slowly. I mean, I'm absolutely confident that with a decent editor, the first hour and fifteen minutes could be whittled down to maybe half an hour.
They could have especially left out the symbols that don't actually symbolize anything. Which seems silly to say, but the jar of quarters that keeps recurring in the movie not only has no plot significance, but has zero metaphorical significance. They barely explained what they were doing in their house. They were quite literally only in the film to make it look a little deeper. Not to make it more meaningful, but to make it look more meaningful. To make it "smart," and "edgy," and "clever." I don't usually have a problem with making it through a movie but I had to push to make it through this ludicrous, self-righteous mess.
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$30,000,000.00
Revenue:
$67,448,651.00