April
12, 2002 | It's a classic example of bait and switch in reverse:
The ads for Changing Lanes promise a routine blood-and-thunder
vengeance flick, complete with car wrecks and other carnage, but the
movie itself is something more substantial and intelligent - and much,
much more morally complex.
Mind
you, the advertising guys aren't entirely off the mark. Mixed signals
are flashed throughout most of this uncommonly engrossing drama, as
director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Persuasion) sustains the
speed of a slam-bang action-adventure, and goads us - initially - into
expecting a steadily escalating tit-for-tat conflict that brings out
the very worst in two increasingly acrimonious adversaries. That the
movie plays the race card and the class card only serves to stoke our
assumption - again, initially - that, sooner or later, somebody is going
to open up an economy-size can of whup-ass on somebody else.
Time
and again, however, Changing Lanes subversively upends expectations.
Characters who at first appear transparent and predictable turn out
to be ambiguous and multidimensional. (This applies even to the kinds
of supporting characters who, in lesser movies, merely serve as utilitarian
cogs in the plot mechanics.) And while the narrative hinges on one or
two incidents that strain credibility, most of what happens rings emotionally,
psychologically and dramatically true in ways we don't usually experience
in garden-variety, button-pushing melodramas.
Credit
Michell and his razor-sharp screenwriters, Michael Tolkin (The Player)
and newcomer Chap Taylor, for setting the movie into high-velocity motion
right out of the blocks. The early scenes briskly set the tone and provide
exposition while nimbly intercutting between Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck),
a Wall Street lawyer at the top of his world, and Doyle Gipson (Samuel
L. Jackson), a recovering alcoholic who's very near rock bottom.
Already
a rising star at the legal firm co-owned by his father-in-law (director
Sydney Pollack, again moonlighting as a first-rate character actor),
Banek eagerly prepares to further enhance his standing by handling a
probate case involving a multi-million-dollar trust fund. Meanwhile,
over in Queens, Gipson anxiously attempts to purchase a fixer-upper
home, in a desperate bid to impress his estranged ex-wife (Kim Staunton)
so she won't move to Oregon with their two young children.
Both
men are on their way to the same courthouse when they both veer into
the same lane at rush hour on FDR Drive. Their cars, and their destinies,
collide.
Mindful
of the ticking clock, Banek wants to settle the matter right away -
right now, dammit! - and literally offers Gipson a blank check
to cover any damages. But Gipson, who just happens to be an insurance
salesman, wants to play by the rules, exchange information, do the right
thing…
Banek
can't wait, won't wait, and speeds off. Unfortunately, he leaves an
important file - the very heart of his law firm's claim to control that
humongous trust fund - at the accident scene. Even more unfortunately,
Gipson shows up late at family court, and doesn't get the chance to
talk about his home purchase before the judge OK's his wife's move to
Oregon.
From
these interlocking misadventures, a blood feud gradually evolves. Gipson
faxes Banek. Banek phones Gipson. Gipson threatens to destroy the file.
Banek pays a disreputable computer hacker (Dylan Baker) to destroy Gipson's
credit rating. One thing leads to another, and nothing good comes from
any of it. And then things get worse.
No
doubt about it: In synopsis, Changing Lanes sounds like the scenario
for a mano a mano revenge drama (or, with a little tweaking,
a jet-black comedy). And yet, without ever slackening the pace of his
storytelling or loosening his grip on our attention, Michell manages
to make the movie richer and deeper by taking time to reveal hidden
depths of his lead characters, making them at once dangerously impetuous
and painfully self-aware.
Banek
especially is shocked at his own capacity for full-bore nastiness, appearing
as though, after each step he takes, he feels he has violated his sense
of self. He begins to question not only himself but also his place of
work - indeed, he questions his work, period - and rightfully suspects
that there's something profoundly fishy about the probate case his father-in-law
is so determined to quickly wrap up.
Gipson
starts out as a flawed but sympathetic victim - a working-class African-American
who's sorely mistreated by an affluent white professional - but he,
too, gradually emerges as something more complicated than a quick-sketch
stereotype. In a key scene, Gipson's well-intentioned AA adviser (nicely
underplayed by William Hurt) suggests that Gipson is "addicted
to chaos" and actually thrives on conflict. Maybe, just maybe,
he's taking advantage of an increasingly bad situation to vent long
bottled-up rage.
I
wish Changing Lanes had ended about five minutes before it does
- the final scenes are just a bit too neat for my taste - but there
isn't much else I can criticize about the film. And there probably aren't
enough good things I can say about the performances of the supporting
players - note Toni Collette as Banek's workplace confidant and former
mistress, and Amanda Peet as his shrewder-than-she-looks wife - and
the two leads.
Affleck
skillfully plays against his image of arrogant cockiness to reveal a
smooth operator whose self-doubt leads to self-loathing as he contemplates
how deeply he has sunk into a moral sewer. And Jackson is every bit
as powerful as a man driven beyond his capacity to restrain his worst
impulses, who becomes all the more dangerous as he discerns he has nothing
left to lose. To pay their performances and the movie that showcases
them the highest possible compliment: Neither character comes off as
a hero or a villain. Rather, they come off as flesh-and-blood human
beings.