Film Reviews

Changing Lanes

• Rating:
• Director: Roger Mitchell.
• Starring: Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson, Kim Staunton, Toni Collette, Sydney Pollack, Tina Sloan, Amanda Peet, Richard Jenkins.
• Details: US / 99 mins/ (15PG).

Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson) is a reformed alcoholic desperately trying to win co-custody of his two children. Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) is a high flying Wall Street attorney in the midst of a legal battle for control of a massive trust fund. One morning when both men are rushing to their respective courtrooms, they crash on the freeway. In a bid to make his appointment, Banek flees the scene, but forgets a vital file. After Gipson loses custody of his kids, he blames Banek for his misfortune and the two men spend the rest of the day trying to ruin each other's lives. Suspend your belief because Changing Lanes is a film built upon a couple of massive coincidences. If you accept them (and Ben Affleck playing someone who is supposed to be intelligent), then this is a very watchable, if slightly predictable, thriller, featuring Samuel L. Jackson's best performance in years. The script lacks some verve, mistaking social consciousness for the fundamentals of the thriller genre, and the trite conclusion undermines much of what has gone before it. For the most part, however, Roger Mitchell's direction is impressive and even if Changing Lanes thinks it's a far more important film that it actually is, this remains an engaging affair.

Review by Garreth Murphy