Review of Changing Lanes (2002) by Benjamin G — 22 Apr 2009

A pleasingly taut, surprisingly trenchant morality play disguised as an urban thriller, this sleeper hit stays smartly focused on the emotional reality of its premise without devolving into the violent, chaotic genre clichés typically found in lesser films dealing with themes of rage and revenge.

Rather than delighting in the mechanics of one-upmanship, screenwriters Chap Taylor and Michael Tolkin head for different, more disturbing intellectual territory, punctuating their script with arch, cynical monologues that lay bare commonly accepted justifications for inexcusably heinous behavior and exploring in painful detail the high cost of vengeance, depicting it as an inherently selfish fire that must blowback to immolate he who strikes the match.

Both Ben Affleck, in what is easily the best performance in a career of spotty quality, and Samuel L. Jackson, typically simmering with fierce intelligence and coiled menace, zealously dig into their respective roles, each becoming a mirror held up to the other and reflecting back an ugly image neither wants to see.

These are tough, complex, and very real humans with feet of clay and lacking utterly in glamour or heroism. As in many great works of drama, the characters here are ultimately not confronted with each other but with themselves, and the actors rise gloriously to the occasion.

One of the year's boldest, timeliest films, Changing Lanes aspires to encourage introspection, and there aren't many loftier goals for mass entertainment than that.