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Changing Lanes
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The Film:
It is inevitable that at least one day
in everyone's life is going to be a bad day. Perhaps, they'll even have a really
bad day. It might even become a candidate for "The Worst Day Of Their
Lives." However, what happens when someone is responsible for this
bad day; are they to be presumed as a "villain," just by
default? Such questions get more complicated, when your own affect on
their life is not too good, either. This is not a spaghetti western plot,
with a firm grasp of who the good guys and bad guys are;
it is a story of reality, that takes no expected turns, much like
everyday life. Such is the scenario of Changing Lanes, a
spectacular film which may even be a major contender for the Oscars next
year. The
story involves two men on an important day in their lives. Gavin Banek
(Ben Affleck) is a young member of a prestigious legal firm, whose
potential slam-dunk win at trial could place his firm in charge of a multi-million-dollar trust. Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson)
is also expected in court, for reasons less monetary, yet far more costly;
his wife is threatening to leave to another state with their children in
tow, leaving the recently-alcoholic Doyle far behind. Both situations are
controversial; there is no real "superhero" here to root for.
They're just two lives that cross at the most inopportune of times. This
moment occurs in an otherwise simple fender-bender. Neither party is too
shaken by it at first; "Hey, you hurt?" is the casual first
response. Unfortunately, this accident turns out to be not so simple for
Doyle, whose old schlep of a car no longer works, leading to the court to
give custody of the children to his wife by default. Meanwhile, while
Gavin's top-notch car gets him to court only slightly late, a snafu he
made at the accident scene puts Doyle in possession of the papers he needs
to prove his case; if he doesn't present them by nightfall, his firm could
even be brought up on legal charges of fraud. This
all leads to a rag-tag mission by each man, to get back at the other for
their presumed "meddling." Doyle taunts Gavin with a fax
of the cover page to his court papers; Gavin tries to get back at him, by
using his computer-savvy friend to slash Doyle's credit rating. The
ingeniousness of the plot is, at certain points in time, one or the other
man finds it in his heart to just forgive and forget...until the other
commits an act of "revenge" even more criminal. This all reaches
a fever pitch, where each man bottoms out, must look at their lives, and ask themselves
what is truly important here. I think
what's really best about this film is, no one party is labeled as the good
guy here. In Falling Down, the main character encounters a
similar "worst day of his life," yet winds up killing someone,
so of course he's now the bad guy, and we must anticipate his capture and
or imminent demise. In this film, neither man is the super-hero, nor are
they the super-villain; they're only human. True, Doyle is interested in seeing his children,
though is he more interested in their well being, or his? In one scene, he's seen pondering over drinking a glass of
alcohol at a local bar, when he just casually (even while sober) picks a
fight with two of the other bar patrons there. Meanwhile, Gavin is working for a firm he slowly
begins to realize never deserved rights to the multi-millionaire's trust,
even if the papers he held "proved" they did. True, this millionaire was no saint, as Gavin's boss later
implies. Regardless, Gavin's integrity --as well as Doyle's-- is being put
to the test. The resulting ending may be too pat for some, though the ride there is
exceptional. There's
no real complaint about this film, nor is there anything else I wish to
effectively spoil here. So let me top off this review by saying that,
finally, we have a 2002 Oscar contender on our hands. In an upcoming
summer movie season with so much to offer, who knew that the season would
take off early with a film this inspired? If any mistake is made here, it
is releasing this film too soon to early summer blockbusters like Spider-Man, and Star Wars Episode
2...causing many to likely miss this film completely. Don't make this mistake. While it is a downer in many scenes,
it is at least uplifting to know that such true-to-life films are still
possible.
The DVD:
Audio commentary is only offered by the director, in this case Roger
Mitchell. It's a nice enough commentary for an exceptional film by
Mitchell (I look forward to more of his work in the future), though it's a
shame Affleck and Jackson were unavailable. Instead, their comments are
offered via interview snippets in the included 15 minute featurette,
"The Making of Changing Lanes," which admittedly
is an acceptable featurette, actor's commentary track or not.
Even the
screenwriters for the film opted for a featurette, "From the
Writer's Perspective," as opposed to a commentary track. Some may
argue that this 6 1/2 minute featurette favorably cuts to the chase,
discussing exclusively the scenes that meant the most to the
screenwriters. Others may have preferred a commentary track, offering
scene-by-scene anecdotes. Aside
from the obligatory theatrical trailer,
the only remaining extras are the deleted and extended scenes. The extended
scene is a church confessional by Gavin (Affleck). The elements extended here may be
harder to notice thanks to the lack of any commentary track to accompany
it (a rare though nonetheless grateful addition to many recent
deleted scene tracks elsewhere), though with its deletions, this scene
shows even more what's troubling Gavin at this point,
even though the movie already alluded to this elsewhere. The
deleted scenes include an "Interview with Gordon Pinella,"
another legal hopeful interviewed by Gavin, who rubs Gavin the wrong way
because he wants to delve into copyright law; Gavin being, of course, a
lawyer who tries to help acquire such assets, not protect them. The second
deletion, "Artie Crenshaw," is the name of Doyle's
supervisor, who in a scene cut from the final film, has decided to lay off
Doyle until he straightens himself out. I can see why they cut this from
the film; it's overkill of the downward spiral of the character. However,
it's a well acted scene, which is nice to be able to see here. DVD
or VHS, this is one of the more exceptional films of 2002 which I hope the
Academy remembers next year among all the holiday season hopefuls. Affleck
and Jackson both deserve to be nominees next year, if not the film as a
whole. Anyone who sees this film can see that.
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