Settling in at the press screening of this remake of Anything For Her, I heard a bloke behind me utter those tired old words so beloved by critics: "It's not as good as the French version, you know?"

And, okay, Hollywood does have a reputation of softening the hard edges of a foreign film script, chickening out on the ending - The Vanishing, anyone?

But sometimes you wonder whether critics just trot out that line to make them seem more erudite, more worthy.

And, in the case of The Next Three Days, I definitely think that was the case with this particular reviewer.

Anything For Her is one of my favourite films, a unique love story of a man who is so passionately in love with his wife that he cannot believe, refuses to believe for one minute that she might be guilty of murdering her obnoxious boss, no matter how strong the evidence is against her.

In the remake, Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks play John and Lara Brennan, an ordinary Pittsburgh couple whose world suddenly implodes when Lara is dragged away by police in front of their young son.

The next thing we know, Lara is sentenced to a lifetime behind bars, estranged from her family for the rest of her days.

The evidence is compelling against her: she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, she had the motive, she was seen at the scene and she has the victim's blood on her coat.

Despite all this, hubbie John, an ordinary English teacher, decides to commit a daring prison break, sacrificing all ties to his loving parents and committing his young son to a life on the lam.

You might think this is an outrageous leap of faith but the success of this film (and its French original) is in the fact that we totally understand his outrage, his hatred of injustice.

What is often harder to understand in the Hollywood version is his steadfast love for his wife, despite the fact she often throws that love back in his face, presumably because she doesn't want her husband and son wasting their lives mourning her.

And this is the one sticking point I have with the Hollywood version. Crowe is no less committed and passionate than his French counterpart, played by Vincent Lindon, but it is in the difference in female characteristaion that means the French film has the edge.

Diane Kruger is a beautiful lifeforce in the French version and we thrill to her far more than her Hollywood counterpart.

Banks's character is still strong but there is a lack of warmth about her Lara that means I failed to engage to her as much as I did Kruger. Surprisingly, it is in fact the French leading lady who is more glamorous and, if anything, Banks's character succombs much more to a life of grime, her emotional and mental disintegration telling increasingly on her looks so that the Hollywood version is less superficial if a bit colder.

However, apart from this, the film is thankfully a direct remake - and a good one at that. John transforms from a laid-back, middle-class witty average Joe into an almost feral underworld type, willing to risk his life in the pursuit of his wife's freedom.

This still doesn't mean that events go smoothly - that would be too far a stretch of credibility, even for Hollywood.

There are intriguing subplots where you question his wife's innocence and this detracts from the film rather than adds to it. The whole premise lies in the fact that you believe as deeply as John does in her innocence, that you want him to spring her from jail, that you also yearn for her freedom.

What I particularly love about both films is that there is no flabby midsection - the tension is fraught throughout. And this leads us to the final act, where the action reaches a crescendo as events spiral out of control when John's complicated plan is put in jeopardy.

Like Lindon, Crowe is highly believable and puts in a strong performance, as does Banks. But they are backed by a superb script and an even better love story - forget rom-coms, this is a real exposition of true love and warms the cynical cockles of my heart, whether the love is expressed in lyrical French or more staccato Anglo-American.

On general release from January 7.