| The
Review: |
As human beings, we deal with issues
of morality, behavior, and outside forces in our everyday
lives. We are brought up with the teachings of right and wrong;
we are taught that evil will never triumph over good; we grow
up into adults with the sensibility to understand the difference
between these two elements. ***
In "Changing Lanes," the line between
right and wrong is called in for questioning, as is our own
viewpoints on the actions of its characters as well as our
own. The movie implores us to ponder the question, "Why do
we do the things we do?" Why do we consider it justifiable
to exact revenge on someone who has wronged us? Why do we
lay blame at peoples' feet for events completely out of their
control? Where does goodness end and corruption, both physical
and moral, begin? One thing remains certain: after watching
this, whether you like it or not, you'll have plenty to think
about. ***
The film takes place in a cold,
detached New York City, on the kind of rainy day that just
pleads for trouble. Two men are on their way to the courthouse,
two men unaware that each other exists, and who have no idea
how quickly their lives can change. One of these men is lawyer
Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck), on his way to deliver papers to
the court stating that his father-in-law's firm owns the rights
to a deceased client's charitable institution (there is a
complete side-story to this document that later comes into
play, but it's better left unsaid). The other man is Doyle
Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson), a working-class, divorced father
of two young boys who, in a final attempt to keep his wife
from taking the children with her to Oregon, has taken out
a costly loan for a home in which they will live. ***
Two men, carrying out what to them
is just everyday, ordinary life, until they meet after a fender-bender
on F.D.R. Drive, the result of Banek's hasty driving in an
attempt to change lanes. Gipson, being a man of "the right
thing," wants to exchange necessary information and make sure
everything goes by the book. Banek, in a frantic hurry, writes
him off with a blank check and a "Better luck next time,"
unaware that the Power of Appointment document he will be
presenting to the court in twenty minutes is now in Gipson's
possession. ***
This all happens within the first
ten minutes or so of the film, leaving one to wonder what's
left. This is an action thriller, right? We are looking at
the same movie whose trailer touts it as a fast-paced nail-biter,
correct? Wrong on both counts. You see, "Changing Lanes" isn't
so much a thriller as it is a quietly-evolving, well-developed
drama about the actions and reactions that come about as a
result of two men playing a heated game of superiority to
obtain the upper hand, something that occurs in society at
least 1,000 times a day, whether it be the bravado of the
high school football star strutting his stuff to his fellow
classmates, or the powerful boss presenting his employee with
a dirty ultimatum. ***
Upon learning the file is missing,
Banek hurriedly attempts to retrieve the file from Gipson,
at first putting on a brown-nosing act that Gipson sees right
through. "What I want is my time back," he tells the lawyer
before heading back to the courthouse to retrieve the trashed
document. Why does he go back for it? What is it in his mind
that drives him to hold on to it? Does he feel a sense of
power possessing something of great importance to another?
Does he have the mental cohones to hold Banek over for a lofty
sum in exchange for his prized piece of paper? ***
Seeing that his charm and blatant
sucking up will do no good, Banek enlists the help of a computer
hacker who, in exchange for $5,000, bankrupts Gipson of his
precious loan, and by extension, his entire life. Thus begins
a battle of wills that takes the men into the deepest, darkest
recesses of their psyches, places they never knew they were
capable of. They become so consumed by their ongoing feud
that outside elements hardly seem to matter. Soon, the two
men begin questioning themselves, wondering how their self-destructive
behavior has improved their lives in the course of one day's
time. ***
Pretty soon, morality begins to
come into play, both for Gipson and Banek. At one point, Banek
remarks to a fellow employee, "Since breakfast, I've left
the scene of an accident, I just bankrupted a guy I don't
even know, I've lied to my bosses, pulled a false alarm at
work, and I'm now sitting here, seriously contemplating forging
a power of appointment." In his voice, we hear the pangs of
guilt beginning to come into focus. Later, his father-in-law/partner,
a man Banek has viewed as morally virtuous, makes the comment,
"At the end of the day, I believe I've done more good than
harm;" this, and the surprising fact that Banek's wife shares
this viewpoint, makes him question the quality of his life.
***
Gipson, on the other hand, must
confront not those around him, but himself. He is presented
with quite a nasty picture of himself, in a confrontation
with two men he begins beating with a payphone receiver, and
in a later attempt to rub out Banek by removing the lugnuts
from his front driver's-side tire. There is a pivotal scene
near the end of the film, perhaps the film's defining moment,
where his ex-wife points out to him the disturbing nature
of his actions. "You went crazy like you always go crazy,
and you always will go crazy. Drunk or sober, Doyle, it doesn't
matter, because that's you!" In this scene, we see the hurt
in Gipson, the fact that he has lost the control of himself
he thought he had overcome by reverting to sobriety, only
to realize that his past alcoholism was just his way of avoiding
his true self-destructive actions. ***
Director Roger Michell keeps a keen
eye on these two men's evolutions through a briskly-paced,
elegantly-shot 98 minutes that never loses momentum or credibility.
He charges the film with an undercurrent of delicious suspense
that feels genuine and unforced; rather than show us something
to garner intensity from, he allows us to feel it for ourselves.
Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson, and the fabulous supporting
cast including Kim Staunton as Jackson's ex and Sydney Pollack
as Affleck's father-in-law, all deliver Oscar-worthy performances
that set a new high for believable acting. The two leads convince
of their characters' emotional drives and awakenings, their
personal reevaluations and eventual reshapings, and at the
end of the day, "Changing Lanes" has done a world of good
by introducing society a portrait of itself that is unflinching,
unyielding, and truly unforgettable.
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