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Changing Lanes (2002)
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Synopsis: Two cars collide on the FDR expressway. Their drivers--two seemingly opposite men--are Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck), a young white partner in a powerful law firm, and Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson), a meek, working-class black man. At the scene of this fender bender, Gavin, who is busy trying... Two cars collide on the FDR expressway. Their drivers--two seemingly opposite men--are Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck), a young white partner in a powerful law firm, and Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson), a meek, working-class black man. At the scene of this fender bender, Gavin, who is busy trying to make a business appointment on his cell phone, offers Doyle a blank check to cover damages. Doyle, wanting to properly exchange information, declines, causing Gavin to flee the accident site. In his haste, Gavin leaves behind an important legal file which Doyle uses to his advantage, setting off a brutal cycle of revenge between these two men who began this Good Friday as strangers. A class commentary that is decidedly different from director Roger Michell's previous film, NOTTING HILL, CHANGING LANES provides very little information about its two central characters before the moment of their car accident. Michell introduces them by crosscutting between both men speaking publicly--Gavin is lecturing to a charitable foundation, Doyle is talking at an AA meeting. These techniques of crosscutting and mirror imaging are used effectively throughout the film to underscore that the obvious social and economic differences between the two men doesn't disguise the dark and angry nature that exists in both of these men, and potentially in all of humanity. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson, Toni Collette, William Hurt, Amanda Peet
Screenwriter: Michael Tolkin, Chap Taylor
Producer: Scott Rudin
Composer: David Arnold
Reviews
One of the best films I have ever seen, constantly pulling the rug from underneath us, seeing things from new sides, plunging deeper, getting more intense.
Michell is willing to explore a drama that has no heroes, just broken men trying to find some hope in the darkness, some meaning in the madness.
... An extraordinary film with a level of moral complexity and attention to detail that are rare today ...
How often do you go to a Hollywood movie and still find yourself thinking about it on the way to work the next day?
Changing Lanes is a good movie built on a dumb premise. But it's a good movie all the same.
Despite its strong start with a plausible situation gone disastrously wrong, Changing Lanes lectures audiences and devolves into the corniest of melodramas--there's nothing subtle about it.
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