Highs and lows

With a title like ‘3 Days to Kill’ one wonders if “kill” means “eliminating” or “passing time.” But when you realize that the story is by French action filmmaker Luc Besson, who is also co-script-writer, there can be little doubt. It is a start-to-finish thriller with terse cutting and editing, leaving you no time to think.

Ethan Reener (Kevin Costner) is a secret agent who has brain cancer which has spread to the lungs. But his latest assignment is in Paris where he plans to make up with his estranged wife Christine (Connie Neilsen) and precocious daughter Zoey (Hailee Steinfeld).

The viewer is taken on a whirlwind tour of Paris and its bylanes often spotting the Eiffel. Soon our hero finds his apartment occupied by an African family. That’s not his only problem. Zoey is a congenital liar who on the pretext of studying with a friend visits some sleazy nightclubs like “the Spider” and soon Ethan has to follow her on his bicycle, which is easily put in speeding vehicles when the opportunity affords.

Meanwhile, his partner Vivi Delay (Amber Heard) gives him an experimental drug for his cancer while his wife Christine jet-sets to the United States on her work.

But Ethan is bent on getting to know Zoey which is fraught with surprises, to put it mildly. Among other things the African family delivers a child and names it after Ethan. It is the Wolf (Richard Sammel) and the Albino (Thomas Lemarquis), drug lords whom they have to nab.

There’s excitement in every bend in the road but among other things Ethan teaches Zoey to dance and a whole lot of. Errands in the process. But as it often happens only in films, all’s well that ends well, Xmas included, not to mention the dollops of salt to go with it.

Kostner looks a bit tired but Hailee Steinfeld is fresh and talented and ably supported by Amber Heard and Connie Neilsen.