Customer Reviews

Changing Lanes

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

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.

'One Wrong Turn Deserves Another", that's the tagline for the film Changing Lanes (2002), starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson, directed by Roger Michell, someone I've never heard of before here, but I found out he also directed the Julia Roberts film Notting Hill (1999), which I have yet to see, mostly because Julia Roberts kinda scares me with those big horse teeth of hers.

As the film begins, we sort of meet two individuals, a fancy schmanzy lawyer named Gavin Banek (Affleck) and a telephone insurance salesman Doyle Gipson (Jackson). The two men, while both on their way to court, Banek involved in a case worth a lot of money to the law firm he's a partner in, and Gipson involved in a custody hearing with his divorced wife, get into a car accident with each other. Gipson wants to handle the situation in the correct manner, but Banek, who caused the accident, has little time to deal with the formalities, tries to deal with the matter expeditiously, pawning off a blank check on Gipson, leaving not only the scene of the accident, but leaving Gipson stranded as his car is totaled. In his haste, Banek accidentally leaves an important document with Gipson, one that could potentially cost his firm over 100 million dollars and even prison time for Banek. As a result of the accident and being stranded by Banek, Gipson misses his appearance, and the court rules against him, allowing for his ex-wife to move away with their two sons. Banek, in the meantime, is allowed until the end of the day to produce the lost document, and later discovers Gipson still has possession of it, but is disgruntled over the treatment he received from Banek and losing his custody hearing, setting up a cycle of revenge between the two men, each sort of 'one upping' each other to increasingly dangerous and life-altering levels.

First of all, I just had a hard time buying Affleck as a partner in a big law firm, despite the fact that his father-in-law, played wonderfully by Sidney Pollack, is also a partner. I think he's a decent actor, a bit over-rated, and he's certainly got the smarmy quality down, inherent in many of his roles, but I didn't feel like he had the level of intelligence required to hold the position he does...and are all lawyers smarmy, greedy, opportunistic liars looking to rip people off? Maybe...I don't know, but this movie would have you believe so...Jackson is pretty good, but he's pretty much playing a role I've seen numerous times before from him, the angry, loud black man who yells a lot. It's toned down a little here, but not much. In the film, we find his wife left him because of his problem with alcohol and his addiction to rage. Throughout the film, she would seem on the verge of possibly reconciling with him, but then would quickly change her mind. This happened three or fours times, and given the film takes place over the course of one day, I could see where Jackson's character might react the way he does, given that she has such a penchant for flip flopping. One of the things I disliked about this film was each time one of the main characters would initiate some form of revenge on the other, they would suffer from moralistic pangs, which would soon pass as the cycle continued. And honestly, there weren't really any likeable characters in this film, despite any attempts of redemption by the characters within the story. Banek is a self-serving lawyer, one whose professional dealings seem awful shady (he struggles with this throughout most of the movie, as we are supposed to believe his conscious is now bothering him, despite his previous actions). Oh yeah, he's also an adulterer...and Jackson's character, a recovering alcoholic telephone insurance salesman with confrontation issues, one who his AA sponsor (played by William Hurt) say is 'addicted to chaos'. We do see him desperately trying to put the pieces of his life back together and develop a relationship with his two young sons, but I always got the feeling like his attempts were always too little, too late. I did like the performances by Pollack and Hurt, even though they got so little screen time and it seemed like their characters were a bit contrived as plot devices, both seemingly only present to serve as external forces for good, with Hurt and Jackson, and bad, with Pollack and Affleck, to put it simply. Toni Collette makes an appearance or two, as a colleague of Affleck at his law firm, but her character is almost a non-character, offering little more than a foil for Banek to bounce off of as he deals with his conscience. And I have to say, while I think she's normally an attractive woman, she did not look good here, with here bleached out hair. I was expecting a much different direction at the end, as the film reminded me slightly of the 1993 Michael Douglas film Falling Down, in that events continuously build on each other leading to an inevitable conclusion, but here, things wrapped up just a bit too convenient for my tastes, especially given the self destructive nature of the characters and events that transpired.

The wide screen anamorphic picture here looks wonderful, and there are a few special features available including a really worthwhile commentary track by the director, a 15 minute 'Making of' featurette, deleted and extended scenes (only about three total and not really offering much more to the story), a five minute 'A Writer's Perspective' featurette, and a theatrical trailer for the film. The product page here mentions alternative endings, but I didn't see those listed in the special features of the disc. By the way, if you ever get into a one upping contest with Samuel L. Jackson, check your car's lug nuts regularly.

Cookieman108

20 minutes of lost time causes Doyle Gibson to lose a custody battle with his exwife. The lost time was caused by Banek cutting off Gibson on the FDR (I'm a former NY'er and I've had this happen to me!!!) Doyle wants to do the right thing and exchange information, while Banek just wants to give him a blank check and be gone. Banek is in such a rush he does not realize that he lost a file for the court case he is on his way to. To get back at Banek Doyle holds the important file hostage!!! This starts a series of events that just sets of a domino effect of I'm going to do you worse!!! Closing accounts, threatening phone calls, and possibly worse!!

The movie is about morals, and doing the right thing. The movie was not great, but it held my interest.

Changing Lanes is most of all a story about good and bad and how far people will go to improve their own life over the lives of others.

Due to a strange mixup the lives of Samuel L Jackson and a good Ben Affleck are changed forever. Jackson plays an alcoholic who wants his children back and Affleck plays a lawyer on Wall Street. Evryone around him is urging him to bend the rules to get things done, something he regrets in the end.

it's a good thriller with almost no violence, explosions etc. It's worth seeing, also to see what a great actor Jackson is.

Ben Affleck as Gavin is introduced by giving a eulogized speech on a recently deceased millionaire who has donated money to charities in great amounts. Affleck is an attorney who is facing charges that the will stipulating that his law firm handle this charitable donation is not valid.
Samuel L. Jackson is Doyle Gipson, an alcoholic attending AA classes shephereded by William Hurt. He is also in a brutal custody battle for his two children, and has applied for a loan to buy a house to keep his wife from taking his boys to Oregon.
Both men are on their way to the courthouse when inattention on both drivers' parts results in a fender-bender. Affleck offers a blank check to Jackson for the damages, but Jackson wants to do it the right way, refusing the check. Affleck blows him off as he must get to the courtroom to present his documentation. He leaves Jackson stranded, along with the document of assignment that he dropped out of his briefcase. Jackson finds the document and takes off with it to court. Ironically, both men were going to the same courthouse and had Affleck offered Jackson a ride, fate would have turned out differently.
From this point on, it is a desperate game of payback and lies as Affleck tries to get the document back. He arranges for a computer geek to "bankrupt" Jackson and Jackson loses everything; it also appears that Affleck may lose it all, too.
CHANGING LANES is a dark, yet ultimately, rewarding experience. Jackson plays against type; Ben Affleck shows a lot of maturity in his performance, and they have a strong supporting cast in Richard Jenkins, Sydney Pollack and Toni Collette.
CHANGING LANES shows how a quick, irresponsible action can make a drastic change in one's life.
Compelling and well done.

Ben Affleck and Smaual L. Jackson plays two average men who become engaged in a real mean war of wills. Affleck is a rich lawyer who can turn off your credit if he wants to; which hurts Jackson's chances to get a loan he needs badly. On the other hand Jackson is very mean and will take the bolts off Affleck's tires, nearly killing him. Both of these men go wildly out of control on taking their vengence out on each other; but it soon becomes a war of the classes (black and white never becomes an issue). The tension is tight, I mean it's like a rope around your neck; you will not be able to breathe until it's over. This is one of the best thrillers in many years, and most likely will not be surpassed for a long time to come. Ben Affleck and Samula L. Jackson are excellent, they are one of the best teams in movies I have ever seen. I just don't know if I could compare them to anyone; Paul Newman and Robert Redford is the only ones that come close. You can never take your eyes off them. Amanda Pete is the ice princess, and plays it well. Sydney Pollack is real good as Affleck's boss, he is pretty creepy in a Donald Trump with out a heart (if that's possable). It's an R rated thriller, but dosn't have a lot of violence, and next to no blood; the fighting is all mental. That said, it is pretty bad how low and vicious these men will go. It's pretty scary.

This engaging, clever thriller is in fact a morality tale that shows the importance of tolerance, patience and respect in today`s society. Although this may sound preachy, the movie is actually quite compelling and consistent, showcasing the darker side of an average person. Ben Affleck and Samuel Jackson give convincing performances as the two antagonists who have a car accident in a morning. Problem is, that little accident will lead to a twisted, troubled day where a revenge process builds a road to insanity and despair. Director Roger Michell knows how to build tension and suspense, delivering a tight social thriller after his previous and unengaging work in "Notting Hill". Sometimes the mood and atmosphere comes close to that of a David Fincher movie, discussing urban paranoia and the anger it generates. Unfortunately, the predictable ending steals some of the impact of the picture, approaching a typical Hollywood resolution. Still, "Changing Lanes" is a very well-crafted movie and one of the more intriguing surprises of 2002.

The number one (I may be a bit mistaken) B...Sh.. movie of all time. Period.