If you are ever in an accident, there are certain people you definitely don't want to hit or be hit by. Mike Tyson immediately leaps to mind, as do O.J. Simpson, Tawny Kitaen, and your pick of the WWF wrestlers. After seeing Changing Lanes it might not be a bad idea to add Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson to that list. What these two guys do to each other after rubbing passenger doors on the FDR in New York is off the charts.
The two men play polar opposites. Affleck is Gavin Banek, a white-collar lawyer who appears to be constantly in control. Jackson is Doyle Gibson, a blue-collar insurance agent who appears to be constantly out of control. But appearances can be deceiving. One fine morning, Gavin is late to a court appearance in which he is about to put the final screws to a charitable foundation's board of trustees. All he needs to do is present the proper legal papers to the judge, and Gavin's evil corporate father-in-law (Sydney Pollack, just great as a manipulative power weasel) will take control of the foundation and its questionable money flow. Doyle, meanwhile, is also late for a court appearance in which he hopes to prove to a judge that he is a fit father for visitation rights. Doyle has just been approved for a loan to buy a home in Queens for his estranged wife and their two sons so that they won't move away to Oregon. He is also a recovering alcoholic who only wants to "start living right."
CRASH!
Opposites, in this case, attract only fender damage and some major body work. Doyle's crappy car is totaled, and Gavin's sleek eight-cylinder wet dream of a vehicle sustains only minor damage. Unfortunately, Gavin has no time for Doyle's pleas to exchange insurance information and wait for a cop. The yuppie hands him a blank check and says, "Better luck next time," before driving off. Stranded, Doyle looks up at the sky, then down to his feet and what does he discover?
The file that Gavin needs in court--the one that could send him to jail, in essence, should it fall into the "wrong" hands.
What follows is quite a traumatic day for both men. Changing Lanes may seem a bit contrived, but it unfolds in a surprising believable fashion while you are watching it. Gavin and Doyle end up doing some truly despicable things to each other. In the end, though, the fight is not between them but between themselves, between each man's inner demons.
You see, neither man is happy with his respective life. Gavin is the worst kind of attorney ... one whose conscience gets the better of him at odd times. He works for an unscrupulous law firm and is married to an equally unscrupulous wife (Amanda Peet, effectively shrewish in only two scenes). He still has feelings for Michelle (Toni Collette, looking disturbingly like Martina Navartilova in a power suit), a co-worker with whom he recently ended an affair. In Gavin's world, no one is clean. Not even Michelle. She willingly gives him the name of a shady computer whiz (Dylan Baker, outstandingly scummy with a Wal-Mart greeter's smile on his face at all times). For a $5,000 fee, this online genius is able to wipe out Doyle's entire credit in just a matter of minutes.
Doyle, meanwhile, has anger-management issues. His short fuse and vulnerability to the bottle has wrecked his life. He can't help bringing grief and misery upon himself. In one of the movie's best scenes, his AA sponsor (an unbilled William Hurt) tells Doyle that he is not addicted to alcohol. He is addicted to chaos! Just when Doyle thinks he is about to get things back in order, Gavin Banek enters his life.
Under the direction of Roger Michell, Changing Lanes mirrors its characters in that it comes dangerously close to going over the edge, only to be reined back in before things get really out of hand. The movie skillfully walks a tightrope, and it's the audience that keeps teetering from side to side as our allegiances switch back and forth from Gavin to Doyle. Consequently, Changing Lanes is one of the more ambitious studio films to come out of Hollywood in quite some time. It tackles subjects like ethics, fate, and taking personal responsibility in new and intense ways.
All the while, Michell (who makes a quantum leap as a storyteller and a stylist from his last film, the romantic comedy Notting Hill) delivers his sordid tale at a breathless pace that is helped greatly by Salvatore Totino's fantastic, in-your-face cinematography. The camera is never still in Changing Lines. Neither are the two main characters' brains, however screwed up they may be. When Gavin and Doyle are not thinking up ways to screw each other, they're pining for an end to their conflict, a return to the safety and relative tranquility of just a few hours earlier.
Is the movie contrived? Oh, without a doubt, yes! Nitpickers and logic
mongers are going to have a field day with this one. What irked me most
about the film were the easy ways out Michell takes in telling his story
visually. For example, one of the first dilemmas Gavin is faced with in
the film is that he left the scene of the original accident without getting
any personal information on Doyle. He doesn't have a name, an address,
a phone number. Nothing. Minutes later, Gavin is driving along in a rainstorm
and spots Doyle in the middle of crowded Manhattan. This turn of events
is necessary, but no less snicker-inducing.
And when Doyle tells him he threw away the file Gavin needs, Yuppie
Boy unbelievably fails to ask, "Where?" or "How long ago?" In fact, he
lets him go!
Late in the film, as the tension between the two men has reached near-epic proportions, Doyle unscrews Gavin's tires and lures the younger man back onto the FDR with the promise of the all-important file. As Gavin speeds up, he sees Doyle in a taxi in the next lane with a large screw in one hand and a tool in the other. A moment later, Gavin is spinning out of control. Michell, though, choreographs the sequence in such a wussy, A-Team sort of way that Gavin doesn't smash into any cars or kill or maim any motorists or pedestrians, just to keep Doyle--who REALLY didn't think that one through--murder-free.
Still, I'm recommending Changing Lanes. Quite highly, in fact. But, in keeping with my Frailty review earlier in the week, I wish I could discuss the film's somewhat disappointing ending in greater detail. Let me just say that I wish the story's resolution had a bit more edge to it. It's a little too safe, and way too tidy. I was expecting something deeper and a bit more cynical, considering everything that had come before. Gavin and Doyle exist in an uncaring, pessimistic world where actions have consequences. Heck, if the movie had ended at Gavin's "I haven't eaten all day" line, I would have been fine with it. But it had to go make nice-nice.
I'm sorry for being vague here. Let me just say that the movie sets you up for a bigger payoff than it delivers. I guess what I was expecting was for the film to slam on its breaks at the end and send me hurtling through its windshield. Instead, Changing Lanes slows down and lets its audience pass unscathed.
Changing Lanes is rated R for language, violence, and
adult situations.
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