Changing Lanes

South African director Roger Michell directs this hit suspense thriller starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson. Michell is actually very skilled and has a tremendous amount of mainstream appeal. He also directed last years Venus, which was another solid film albeit very different from Changing Lanes. Ben Affleck plays Gavin, a successful Wall Street attorney who must file a power of appointment for his company, which is run by his father-in-law played by Sydney Pollack. The document will sign a company over to his law firm and that company is owned by a dying man. Ethical questions certainly surround the document and as things unfold we find out even more. Doyle is played by Samuel L. Jackson, he is an insurance salesman and a recovering alcoholic who wants badly to restore his family before his wife takes his children away to the west coast. We get the feeling that Doyle is a wounded man and his actions are unacceptable at times. Actually both characters are deeply flawed and that is what makes their collision so engaging.

On his way to court to file this crucial document, Gavin gets into a car accident with Doyle. He doesn't prioritize the accident and instead must leave the scene to make it to court on time. Doyle's car will not drive and he is in the middle of a highway median when Gavin takes off in a rush. It of course begins to rain. Doyle himself was on his way to court and when he eventually gets there he finds out that he is too late. His goal was to surprise his wife with a mortgage loan he just received so his family would stay. He was attempting to get some resolution to whatever chaos he may have caused his family before this movie begins. Unfortunately for Gavin the power of appointment was left at the scene of the accident and is in Doyle's possession. Doyle, sour for being left in the rain on the highway and missing his chance in court, refuses to give Gavin the document. Needless to say they both have reasonable vendettas against one another and the battle they have escalates throughout as the film goes forward. These two men are basically dehumanized to one another and it doesn't help matters that they both come from entirely different worlds. They are opposites in life, so they are fundamentally opposed to one another when the first sign of conflict surfaces. It turns out that Changing Lanes evolves into a unique commentary on the darkest sides of human nature. It is unique because we visit these dark decisions by way of likeable and real character portrayals. To avoid spoilers, I won't reveal anymore than I have already.

Samuel L. Jackson is obviously an outstanding actor and he is great here but the most surprising thing is Ben Affleck matches him and then some. It's a shame Ben's reputation as an actor was so horrible at the time Changing Lanes came out because his performance definitely deserved some praise. Sydney Pollack is also outstanding as an exceptionally believable and accessible villain. A lot of the credit goes to the screenplay here for exposing pragmatic reactions to specific circumstances instead of superficial morality. There are no purely ethical and moral figures in Changing Lanes, but then again I can't think of too many in real life either. If they did exist in Changing Lanes then its commentary would be disrupted completely, but I still held out hoping reason would creek into the picture. Chaos reigns here and humanity is called upon to prevail. It puts suspense on a much larger societal scale for me. I know that the ending bothered those hoping for something more retributive but try to see Changing Lanes as a story about healing, not revenge.

Yet another masterpiece that everybody is praising. Starring Ben Affleck(who plays a hotshot lawyer and whose long chin and bad acting always get on my nerves) and Samuel Jackson( who plays divorced father of two). Ben is supposed to be in court and so is Samuel. They get in the traffic accident and when Ben wants to just give Samuel a check because he is in a hurry, Samuel wouldn't take it because he wants everything to be "just right"(whatever the hell that means). Ben decides the hell with this and leaves. Samuel is late for court and because it was for a custody hearing, judge awards custody to his wife. He is royally pissed. Then, we go back to Ben who realizes he left an important document in Samuel car. Okay, Ben is pissed too. He tries to track down the other guy who promptly tells Ben to go to hell. Shortly thereafter he realizes that there is some fun to be had at Ben's expense and sends him a fax(although how he gets Ben's number is not explained) indicating he has the document and is not giving it back. Ben, who is pissed beyond belief decides to have some revenge and hires a hacker to screw Samuel's credit history. Next step, Samuel unscrews the wheel of Ben's car making a serious car accident a sure thing. Ben has the stage at this point and he threatens Samuel's kids. And so it goes. Oh, somewhere in the middle, Ben discovers that his boss(who is also his father-law) is a crook and he has to do some serious soul searching which almost made me lose my lunch(it was that painful to watch). Of course, at the end, everybody does the right thing-meaning that both men stop acting like lunatics and try to make amends. To say that it was boring, would be an understatement. To say that it was a good movie would be a crime against humanity

This is a movie with no heroes, no nudity, no CGI and practically no fancy stunts, yet somehow it manages to hold your interest.

After feeling genuine hatred for the two lead characters, more so for Banek (Affleck) than Gipson (Jackson), I found that the ending wrapped up too quickly, too conveniently and too smoothly, and while it was reasonably watchable the first time, I probably wouldn't want to see it a second time.

Both Affleck and Jackson play their parts convincingly, and make it almost believable that a fender bender could lead to such chaos. In the real world however, Banek should have wised up to his work situation from the beginning, and Gipson would have certainly fallen off the wagon. Personally, I could never be charitable to a man who purposely sets out to destroy my family's chance for happiness, or lies about my kids safety, which makes the somewhat neat ending leave a bad taste in my mouth.

The bankruptcy story thread was unconvincing. The highly paid professional just accepting his failure with a shrug off is just not realistic. There are other parts of the movie where the lead characters cause significant damage to office property without repercussions, and some of the support actors tenuously cling to the storyline like afterthoughts.

Considering that this movie is about greed, arrogance, despair, revenge, deceit and blackmail, it does very well to maintain a reasonable entertainment value. The "positive message" comes too late to be of significant redeeming value.

Jackson's performance carries the movie as far as it can go.