Changing Lanes

Directed by Roger Michell. Written by Chap Taylor and Michael Tolkin
R	for language
Starring Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson, Toni Collette, Sydney Pollack, Amanda Peet and Kim Staunton

Reviewer: Pete Luisi-Mills

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"

The theological idea of "total depravity" has always been somewhat problematic for me. I know that humankind collectively has a bottomless capacity for cruelty. But every individual? Surely most of us aren't capable of anything too exotic as far as sin goes. Changing Lanes seems to suggest that, while we may not all be Hitlers, our propensity for nasty behavior is far greater than we like to admit. This film illustrates just how fine the line is between civility and cruelty, and how little it takes to push someone over the edge under the right circumstances.

Changing Lanes is about two men, Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) and Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson). On the surface they are about as different as two men can be. Gavin is a young, successful lawyer, married to the beautiful daughter of the head of the firm. Doyle, divorced and a recovering alcoholic, sells insurance over the phone. Doyle and Gavin, who would normally never cross paths, are brought together by freak circumstance when they are involved in a minor traffic accident. The accident is neither man's fault; no one's hurt, no blame is placed. Unfortunately, both men are on their way to very important meetings (at the same location, though they don't realize it). Gavin is on his way to settle an important case involving his firm's control of an estate valued at over $100 million; Doyle is scheduled to appear before a judge to prove he has his life in order, and to convince his wife not to move across country with their two sons. Doyle wants to handle things right, but Gavin is in a hurry and doesn't want to bother with exchanging insurance cards – he hands Doyle a blank check. Unfortunately for Doyle, his car has a flat tire. Gavin, in what we suspect is not characteristic behavior, leaves him stranded with an offhand "Better luck next time!"

Doyle ends up getting to court twenty minutes late. The decision has been made in his absence that his ex-wife Valerie has the right to move away with the kids. The judge is not interested in the fact that Doyle has received loan approval to buy a house for Valerie and their two boys. Angry and humiliated, Doyle leaves the courthouse, only to discover that he has somehow come into the possession of an orange file folder belonging to Gavin...

...while Gavin, about to win the important case, reaches into his bag, only to discover that he has somehow lost a very, very important orange file folder. The judge gives him until the end of the day to produce the missing document. Without it, his firm could be sued, and Gavin could go to prison.

The situation snowballs rapidly. Anger and desperation cause the two men to commit acts neither would have thought themselves capable of 24 hours earlier. Credit ratings are destroyed. Cars are tampered with. Slanderous phone calls are made. We watch in horrified fascination as vengeance ping-pongs back and forth, each man convinced that he is an unjustly maligned victim. Just as one man begins to think that things have gotten out of control and is about to relent, the other man ups the ante, and better judgment drowns in a flood of testosterone.

Changing Lanes is not a typical revenge flick. Normally in a film of this kind we'd get a morally unequivocal situation with a clearly defined victim and victimizer; hero and villain engage in an intricate battle of wits, one-upping each other and quipping left and right ("It's payback time!", "This time it's personal!", stuff like that). But Doyle and Gavin aren't movie heroes--or villains; they're regular joes who lead unspectacular lives and aren't used to a lot of excitement. They attack each other reluctantly, and their actions have a clumsy, amateurish feel to them. And unlike many movies, the screenplay doesn't force either man into an artificial corner, leaving him no choice but violence. Gavin and Doyle choose freely to take revenge on each other.

It's refreshing to see a movie where a person's actions have repercussions. Movies normally present retribution as an acceptable and sensible way to achieve swift justice; audiences relish the sweet catharsis of watching cartoonishly fiendish baddies getting their comeuppance. Revenge is presented here as a moral cancer. After getting back at the other, each man is at first exhilirated, exulting over the other's suffering. But then the reality of what they've done comes winging back like a boomerang, plunging them into depression, guilt and angst. The situation balloons out of control, hitting a sort of critical mass that threatens to consume not only Doyle and Gavin but their friends and family as well. Every time they retaliate, they are left emptier than before - their vengeance has given them nothing. It has debased them and prepared them to sink lower the next time around.

There are several excellent scenes that demonstrate the uncanny human ability to think well of oneself in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Gavin pours out his tale of woe to a priest, ranting bitterly that "the world is a sewer". Of course, Gavin doesn't see that he himself is contributing robustly (despite the fact that he has just intentionally destroyed a man's credit rating). Doyle, meanwhile, regales his ex-wife with the terrible chain of events that has ruined him. Instead of showing sympathy, she replies angrily that he always blames everyone but himself for his circumstances. Of course, she thinks Doyle is lying, but she still has a point - Doyle's situation is as much his own fault as it is Gavin's. Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Affleck perfectly capture the desperation and despair of these two men; their performances are so strong you can almost see their characters' moral fiber dissolving like wet candyfloss.

For all of Hollywood's liberal posturing, they know there's a little fascist in all of us just dying to get out and teach somebody a lesson. The story of the longsuffering, decent man (or woman) who finally gets back at all of society's creeps is a popular one: it's the theme of a wide range of films (Death Wish, Dirty Harry, Nightmare on Elm Street, Thelma & Louise, Addicted to Love, The Virgin Spring, The Count of Monte Cristo, Ben-Hur, In the Bedroom, Hamlet...heck, even Jaws had his revenge the fourth time around). Changing Lanes deals honestly with the morally corrosive effects of revenge, and for that reason it's a rare gem.

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