Changing Lanes: Review By carl

Doyle Gibson (Samual.L.Jackson) is a recovering alcoholic who needs to convince his wife that even though they've split up she shouldn't take his kids and move to a different state. Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) is a lawyer who needs to get an important file to court in order to make sure that his company get's the money that it has extorted from an old man. On the way to their respective court appearances these 2 collide in a severe car crash. Being in a hurry Banek writes Gibson a blank check so that he can fix his car, but Gibson wants to take the proper way and swap insurance information. So Banek get's back in his car and drives off leaving Gibson stranded on the roadside, if only he had waited long enough to find out that they were both going to the same court house then all of his problems would be over, however in his rush he has dropped an important doc*ment that will keep him out of jail. Gibson finds it, but when his being stranded causes him to be late for his court appearance and thus loose his family he decides to use this doc*ment to get revenge on Banek.

This is the story for Changing Lanes a film that I have been waiting a long time to see, but unfortunately this was all because it had the most misleading trailer in history. The trailer was promising a fast based blockbuster that featured a goody goody hero (Jackson) who had to take his life back from a twisted evil villain (Affleck), but Changing Lanes features the most blurred line of who is good and who is bad that I've seen in years. In fact if anything the roles are the complete reverse of what I was expecting. The trailer indicated that Gavin Baneck was a really bad guy, it showed how he left a guy stranded on the roadside, and then to get his file back deleted said persons credit rating until the guy was willing to return his file. In actuality though the character was a decent guy, he may have acted like a jerk when under pressure but he tried to put it right. Eventually as a prison sentence for something he didn't do started to look more likely he got desperate and made a few mistakes, but he didn't make this decision on a whim and then tried to put it right virtually strait away. Out of the 2 it was ultimately Banek that I felt the most sympathy for because once again the trailer was misleading as it portrayed Gibson as an innocent bystander who's life is taken from him. This is not the person you get to know in Changing Lanes because Gibson is a very petty man. After all his talk about doing things properly at the start of the film he quickly forgets all of this when his problems start. He is a recovering alcoholic who believes that everything will be OK as long as he avoids the drink. Unfortunately he is still a crazy person who is prone to sudden acts of violence, and he firmly believes that beating those 2 guys nearly to death was OK because he was sober when he did it. Ultimately I found that I felt no sympathy for the character, because such an unpredictably violent guy should not be allowed to raise children anyway.

Now just in case you didn't realize I'll tell you that the last paragraph was a compliment. It's always nice when a film takes risks and ignores expectations, and I was impressed by the more believable characters. Unfortunately there is not much more good that I can say about the film. I will give credit where it's due, the acting was terrific. Ben Affleck is an actor who I once believed was pigeon holed into playing the same character in every film he makes, but lately he has been proving himself to have more talents. It started off in The Sum Of All Fears where he showed that he could play a part without grinning, and he has continued this success here. He is very good as a good man with some major character flaws and seems more comfortable in different roles now than he did in The Sum Of All Fears. Samual.L.Jackson is also on top form here. He has proven himself as being more than able of playing different roles and here he tackles the role very well. He didn't blow me away but this was only because of the fact that I have come to expect these kind of performances from Jackson, he's a very talented actor.

That really is it though, there is nothing else I can say about this film that is positive. It has nothing to do with the fact that I was expecting a big budget thriller because I am a fan of all sorts of movies. The problem is that whatever film you're watching, it needs some form of pace if it's going to be enjoyable. I'm not talking explosions every few minutes as there are other forms of pace that can be employed. Afflecks last film The Sum Of All Fears had a similar story of 2 opponents refusing to back down(admittedly on a much larger scale) and it achieved it's amazing pace from the tension that these events developed. Or the film Falling Down that featured a similarly violent character to Jacksons and that developed pace through it's hilarious satire. There are thousands of potential ways to develop pace, but unfortunately Changing Lanes uses none of these and ends up dragging along at a painfully slow pace. Even the films biggest scene that featured Samual.L.Jackson taking things a bit too far trundled along slowly and lacked even a slight payoff moment.

That wouldn't have been so bad though, as if the film's story was good enough it could still have made a mediocre viewing experience. Except that the story is trite and so it can't even achieve mediocrity. I know that a lot of critics love the story, but all it did for me was remind me of The Simpsons. That episode where Homer get's into a battle of wits with George Bush is essentially what you get here. Namely 2 immature guys who refuse to back down, with their actions gradually escalating in there seriousness. Only without the sense of humour found in The Simpsons the story falls flat. People may be stubborn but let's face facts, if this happened then the one character would have left the doc*ment in the bin, they'd have had a punch up and it would all end badly. Not here though, Jacksons character returns to the bin, get's the doc*ment and faxes Affleck to let him know he has it. Did he really believe that Affleck would have just leave it at that.

Whether it ends well for Jackson or Affleck I'm not saying as there are always a few people who enjoy any film, and I will have no-one call me a spoiler. With this in mind all that is left is to summarize this review, and the best way to do this is with the thought that kept passing through my head while I was watching the film. "What a waste of time."