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Changing
Lanes
****
Cinema Releases - November 1, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. USA.
99 minutes. Directed by Roger Michell. Written by Chap Taylor, Michael Tolkin;
from a story by Taylor. Starring Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson, Kim Staunton,
Amanda Peet, Toni Collette, Sydney Pollack, Tina Sloan, Richard Jenkins,
Akil Walker, Cole Hawkins.
The rush of excitement that we get from discovering
great movies usually makes them easy to write about. Opinions and emotions
tumble from the heart onto the page. Undoubtedly it will all come out as
hyperbole, but there is so much I do and do not want to say about
"Changing Lanes" that I have been milling around here at a
loss on how to start this review. Let's begin with a simple observation:
This is one of the best films I have ever seen.
It begins on the road, with two men who have to
be in court. Ben Affleck plays Gavin Banek, a successful New York lawyer
on his way to file a Power of Appointment. Samuel L. Jackson is Doyle Gipson,
a salesman who has to show up at a custody hearing to prevent his ex-wife
from taking their two boys to Oregon. There is an accident. Affleck and Jackson
get out of their cars to exchange information. They're both in a rush, which
clouds Affleck's head enough that he drives off when he can't find his insurance
card. Jackson is stranded, and Affleck has accidentally left him with a folder
full of crucial documents.
Affleck gets to court slightly late and realises
that his files have been left in the other man's possession. Jackson gets
there very late and finds that the custody hearing has been held without
him, and not turned out in his favour. One man needs the other, and the other
is angry at the first man: The stage is set for a day of complex exchanges,
one-upmanship and revenge.
Yes, the film has that, but it is much more, as
it begins to strip away the layers of its characters. We soon learn, for
example, that Affleck is not just a white-collar jerk, but a guy with a history
of activism who doesn't recognise his slow turning into the typical Wall
Street lawyer. And that Jackson is not just a loving father getting victimised
by bad luck, but a man at the mercy of great weaknesses; he's a recovering
alcoholic, and part of the reason we see him trying to do everything the
right way to get himself out of mess is the fact that he got himself there
through his own bad decisions.
The writers, Chap Taylor and Michael Tolkin, and
the director, Roger Michell, keep switching back and forth as Affleck and
Jackson react to each other. Affleck needs his file so much that he goes
to a guy with dodgy computer skills, and switches off Jackson's credit as
a means of blackmail. Jackson needed credit for a loan to buy a house for
his family; he blows up at the bank, getting himself in hotter water and
solidifying his determination to make things difficult for
Affleck.
And so on, and so on, developing into a complex
plot that at every step involves careful dissection of the implications of
actions, the moral choices the characters have to make and how they reveal
their histories and personalities. There is high drama from the two leads,
as they find themselves in loud passion plays and quiet, sobbing moments
of desperation. There is also amazing use of supporting characters: Toni
Collette, as Affleck's secretary, and William Hurt, as Jackson's AA partner,
provide brief counsels and commentaries, and there are three searing, devastating
speeches that rip the characters views and justifications of themselves apart,
delivered by Amanda Peet (as Affleck's wife), Kim Staunton (Jackson's wife)
and Sydney Pollack (Affleck's boss).
Peet comes on and lays out her married life with
chilling ease. She tells Affleck that the law at his level of the game is
a big con, suggests that he needs to stop kidding himself with ethical dilemmas
and matters of principle, acts as if he and her have chosen the path to hell
and might as well enjoy it, and shatters Affleck's idea of himself as a man
changing the system from the inside. In hushed tones that act as a disturbing
contrast to the flustered appearance of Affleck, she whispers, "I could have
chosen to marry an honest man. But I married you, Gav. We're a
team."
Staunton delivers her show-stopper late in the
film, when one of Jackson's brushes with Affleck has landed him in jail for
a few hours. The Jackson performance has been so skilful at making us empathise
with the character that we've seen him as a victim of circumstance and the
chaos of surroundings; he has raised his voice and shown boiling rage in
his eyes, but we feel that we've understood his reasons for getting angry.
Jackson pleads with his wife, trying to explain the ugly logic of his day.
Staunton believes him, but doesn't care: "This is the kind of thing that
always happens to you. You just won't let anything go. And I'm tired
of it."
Pollack's speech regards the charity around which
Affleck's missing file revolves. Affleck was in charge of making sure the
elderly billionaire who owned the foundation signed a Power of Appointment
before he died, because, he was told, his law firm would be more equipped
to handle its management than a board of trustees comprised of the old man's
friends. Affleck thought he was doing the right thing at the time, but now
wonders whether he conned a confused and dying person to sign something he
didn't understand. And he discovers that his bosses got several million dollars
from the transfer of power. And yet maybe the deal was beneficial for the
charity. And, of course, there's also... well, Pollack says things that are
from a simple perspective, albeit one that we're not expecting to come up,
and he cynically, perhaps dishonestly, tumbles down the whole house of cards
that is Affleck's dilemma.
"Changing Lanes" is constantly pulling the rug
from underneath us, seeing things from new sides, plunging deeper, getting
more intense. In a running time of less than one hundred minutes, it gets
profound without ever confusing us, it includes grand dramatic gestures and
moments of tiny detail, and it does so with intelligent dialogue, fast-paced
set pieces, careful use of star power and photography that combines flashiness
with style and communicative skill. It is one of those rare movies where
everything clicks into place exactly right, keeps building and does not
falter.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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