Dir. Paul Haggis, US, 2010, 133 mins
Cast: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Brian Dennehy
Review by Carol Allen
There is no really good reason for making an English language version of writer/director’s Fred Cavayé’s excellent 2008 movie Anything for Her (Pour Elle) , as the French version was a really good thriller – apart of course from the fact that the majority of American moviegoers don’t like watching foreign films with subtitles, so most of them would have missed it. But having decided to remake it Paul Haggis, who is a deservedly respected screenwriter himself (Crash, Million Dollar Baby) , has made a very good job of it.
The central character in Haggis’s film is John Brennan (Crowe), a teacher at a community college in Pittsburgh . He and his wife Lara (Banks) enjoy a happy and passionate marriage and both adore their small son Luke. Their lives are torn apart when Lara is arrested, tried and found guilty of murdering her boss. When all avenues of appeal fail and Lara faces a lifetime in prison and the prospect of never seeing her son grow up, John determines to spring her from jail.
This new version sticks reasonably closely to the structure of the Cavayé’s film. Like the original, once having established the couple’s relationship, the film swiftly gets on with the main plot. If anything the shocking heavy handedness of the police bursting into their home and arresting Lisa in front of her screaming child is even more convincing in the American version than the French, in that we’re accustomed from Hollywood movies to this sort of brutal police behaviour. No time is wasted on the trial and appeals – we cut from the arrest straight to Lara convicted and in jail and the focus for the rest of the film is largely on John and the gradual development of his rescue plan.
There’s a particularly effective cameo early in the film by Liam Neeson as a former jail breaker who advises him and another from Brian Dennehey in the small but key role of John’s father. But the weight of the film is on Crowe’s shoulders as an ordinary man pushed by circumstances into extraordinary deeds and he carries it well, totally convincing us of what is in reality the unlikely idea that a law abiding schoolteacher would attempt such an outrageous enterprise. Banks as Lara has for obvious reasons a more reactive role and the question of her side of the story and whether or not she could be guilty of the murder is handled rather differently and very intriguingly in this American version. Haggis has also upped the action a bit with John getting involved in some fairly heavy gun play in the course of his quest.
The actual escape, which accounts for the fact that the film runs rather longer than the original, is extremely good, edge of the seat stuff, which moves along at a cracking pace with the smart and determined Lieutenant Nabulsi (Lennie James) quite literally on the tail of the escaping couple and their son, leaving the audience on tenterhooks as to whether or not John and Lara will actually manage to escape.
