Review: Changing Lanes

Slick (just shy of being morally bankrupt), privileged Wall Street lawyer Ben Affleck gets into a minor ding with down on his luck reformed alcoholic Samuel L. Jackson, at the exact wrong moment for both men. They’re both expected in court (different courts of course), Affleck because it’s his job, and Jackson because he has a custody hearing with his (almost) ex-wife. Jackson’s life was about to potentially head in the right direction before the collision with Affleck. Affleck, not wanting to hang around for the cops, offers Jackson a blank check. Jackson, being a recovering addict, of course wants to do things the right way. And that’s when Affleck makes the mistake of blowing him off and saying ‘Better luck next time’, driving off. Both are late for their appointments, but for Jackson, the consequences of his lateness are much more severe, thanks to a rather harsh judge (Joe Grifasi) and a fed-up ex. And then Affleck realises that he left behind an important legal document at the scene of the accident, an Jackson is now in possession of it. And he doesn’t seem terribly interested in returning it anytime soon, and if Affleck doesn’t get it, he and his legal partners (who have even less scruples than Affleck) could be in very deep trouble. So Affleck responds in kind, as the two men try to one-up each other making the other person’s life a living hell. Amanda Peet plays Affleck’s happy-to-be-privileged wife, Sydney Pollack is Affleck’s amoral senior law partner and father-in-law, Richard Jenkins is Pollack’s right-hand man, and Toni Collette is Affleck’s loyal secretary/occasional mistress (Cheating on Amanda Peet with Muriel Heslop? Really? OK then...). William Hurt plays Jackson’s concerned AA sponsor, and Dylan Baker plays a guy who ‘fixes’ things, like screwing with Jackson’s credit.

A highly underrated thriller with interesting social commentary, this 2002 film from director Roger Michell (lesser fare like “Venus”, “Notting Hill”, and “Morning Glory”) and writers Chap Taylor (a first-timer) and Michael Tolkin (the overrated Altman film “The Player”) really only has a moment or two that I didn’t believe in. Otherwise, it’s a very sad and tense film about a situation that didn’t need to go anywhere near where it does, if not for some bad and selfish (but understandable and credible at the same time) behaviour.

The two lead performances are spot-on here. Samuel L. Jackson is perfect at these kinds of powder keg roles, as well as characters who have a bit of self-pity and bitterness to them. Ben Affleck makes for a perfect yuppie schmuck who learns a lesson in humility, but spends much of the film being borderline pathetically weaselly. It’s one of his best performances to date. This isn’t a bad guy, just not an especially moral or thoughtful one, and he doesn’t have much of a spine, either. He’s slick but somewhat empty inside, save for a shred of humanity in there. Jackson’s character is probably the more sympathetic of the two, especially early on. But he crosses a line at one point, and is a bit too self-pitying to be totally sympathetic. So you want to hate Affleck and like Jackson, but both end up in an uncomfortable, but not at all uninteresting shades of grey area.

The real villains of the piece are the characters played by the late Sydney Pollack and character actor Dylan Baker. A perfectly cast Pollack is so damn good here that he nearly makes you agree with his jaded, amoral POV, and the character is scarily believable. Baker, meanwhile is just flat-out slimy, and creepy playing a truly repulsive character. Long-serving character actor Joe Grifasi also impresses as the exact kind of character I just loathe. He plays a judge who gives Jackson the ‘If I had somewhere to be, I’d get there on time’ speech. That pisses me off, because as someone who takes taxis and always rings up well in advance to get me to where I need to go and be there early- not on time, early!- it doesn’t always work out like that. You can try to leave an hour early to travel ten minutes and still be late. Allowances need to be made. However, that is no criticism of the film. Characters like this do exist in reality. I just hate them passionately.

It’s an especially well-written film, calculated rather than contrived, and pretty close to air tight from what I could tell, a heightened reality without being silly or unbelievable. There are a few exceptions, however, though they are minor. Jackson has one scene that just didn’t work for me, where a phone call between him and his ex is interrupted by two drunks he needlessly insulted just prior. It’s too tacked on for my liking. I also wasn’t entirely sold on the Amanda Peet character to be honest. Thematically, her rather amoral character fits in, but something- perhaps her dialogue- didn’t ring true to me.

I personally don’t think the film needed the ending it has. Ending the film at the earlier scene between Jackson and Affleck could’ve worked, with a little tweaking. The ending we have, though, is fine, I just think there’s a better ending out there. I’m totally nitpicking, however, as this is definitely a good script for a highly underrated film that might make you think about how many things need to go wrong in your own life before you too start to debase yourself.

Rating: B