Review of Changing Lanes

Here's a totally offbeat film, about as non-mainstream as you could expect despite the presence of two A-listers in the dual leading roles. It's a character study of motivation and the forces which drive sane people to commit insane and unpleasant acts. It helps greatly that the leads are played with such skill and charisma as actors Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Affleck can muster. Jackson is as intense as ever, but also unusually heart-warming in the emotional moments; Affleck puts in his best performance to date here as the vain but weak young lawyer, and the result is highly effective. The scenes in which the leads share screen time are very effective.

The story is slow-paced but this works in the film's favour, building up a realistic picture of life in New York and carefully developing the characters along the way. There are many twists and surprises in the cat-and-mouse game played out between the two men, and it's never quite possible to predict the outcome for this is an edgy, sometimes unsettling movie. In the end things do get a bit preachy and syrupy, but this doesn't matter, because the film's message is a strong one and the dialogue is not spoon-fed to the audience, a failing of so many modern films. Instead this is a film that doesn't underestimate the viewer, that is worth a look thanks to being so unconventional and intelligently-written and made.