Changing Lanes (2002)

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Changing Lanes (2002)

Myriadic and mesmerizing

Changing Lanes takes the concept of the Everyman a step further, and the cast, blessedly enough, is more than up to the challenge. Director Roger Michell (Notting Hill) gives us New York as the battleground, two men from opposite ends of a social, political and demographic spectrum, and a constant rush of plot twists and character revelations that all add up to one hell of a movie.

Ben Affleck (Pearl Harbor, Chasing Amy) plays Gavin Banet, a corporate lawyer in the middle of a civil suit over a city charity accusing him of taking it over by fraud. Samuel L. Jackson (The Caveman's Valentine) is Doyle Gipson, a reformed alcoholic who has just purchased a house so that he might keep his children in his life, rather than see his wife take them across the country. While both are en route to their respective Big Meetings (Banet to prove his innocence; Gipson to establish his independence), they get into a car accident, and when Banet drives off without giving insurance information, Gipson is stranded on FDR Drive, and therefore late to his court appearance. Good-bye kids, see you in Oregon. Banet, when ready to present his evidence at his trial, realizes that he's missing a crucial file giving proof of his Power of Attorney and that Gipson must have it. Good-bye free world, see you after ten to twenty.

From here, it's a crazy game of catch-as-catch-can as each character alternately reaches out, only to encounter the other pushing back. Banet realizes he now has to kiss some serious butt to get that file back and save himself from the clutches of the judicial system, and progresses from streetside pleadings to computer sabotague on Doyle's credit records and finally to engineering an arrest at his kids' school. Doyle struggles between returning to drunkenness and violence, and when he's not contemplating both outside his struggle with Banet, he's sending taunting faxes and doing a little body work on Banet's Mercedes. Each character, however, eventually has to do some soul-searching in the midst of his struggles, and each comes to the same fundamental conclusion: It's not just the other guy. It's me, too. Doyle has to acknowledge his own violent past and his "addiction to chaos," as his AA sponsor (William Hurt) terms it. His anger is not restricted towards Banet either--at one point he beats up a couple of semi-racists in a bar and puts a computer through a window at his credit bureau. Meanwhile, Banet realizes he's been wearing blinders around his bosses, one of which is his father-in-law (played by a wonderfully vicious Sydney Pollock) and the supposed "legitimate" deal they cooked up concerning the charity that's called him to the carpet. Also, an off-screen affair with a co-worker threatens to erupt again, adding a touch of unease throughout the movie since, not only does he have to deal with the possibility of jail, but also the possibility of his wife finding out.

Two principal themes in the movie seem to be faith and fate: What happens when ordinary people (or at least people as ordinary as you can find in New York) are pushed to the bounds of decency? Or honor, or civilization? How far will they go to get what they want, or, barring that, get back at what's in their way? Add to that the various Catholic references: Banet gives an angry denunciation of the civilized world to a priest in a confession booth right about the time he's at the pinnacle of his own moral deterioration, while Gipson, circling around Banet like a hawk after prey, beholds a constant crucifix dangling from a cab window between himself and his prey.

The cinematography is very satisfactory in this movie. New York is crowded, bustling and impersonal (for whatever reason, Michell did not edit out the World Trade Center from skyline shots), just as much a character as Jackson or Affleck. The film's opening credit sequence features a lot of jumpy city street shots, predicting the unpredictable we're about to encounter, and each atmosphere presented conveys the appropriate level of sentiment, or impersonality, Michell is shooting for. Jackson is effective, which is what we've come to expect, but this time it's Affleck who does quite a bit of scene-stealing in the most impressive acting he's done to date, which could mean he's finally living up to the standards Hollywood seems to have set for him. Better late than never.

-Long