Reviews

When `Changing Lanes' first opens, the viewer is presented with a montage of jagged credits, trendy jerking photography cruising NYC streets, and electronic beats that are so cool they could be used for cryogenic freezing. It quickly seems apparent that this film is simply a star-vehicle for Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson; it seems apparent that this is a cold and impersonal genre-exercise for a successful comedy director, Roger Michell (`Notting Hill'), to branch out; it seems to be all these things until the end of this sequence when the camera glances out the window of a school bus out onto the New York City skyline, and there we see it: the World Trade Center. Unlike Sam Raimi's upcoming `Spider-Man', delayed after September 11th so that the WTC could be digitally removed, this is a film unafraid to date itself, and unafraid to look at human truth.

Affleck plays the role of the oddly named Gavin Banek (did they take the name ‘Ben Affleck', throw it in a blender, and add some new letters for good measure?), a high-power lawyer on the verge of becoming one of the partners at his law firm, alongside his father-in-law. Jackson is Doyle Gibson, a reforming alcoholic father of two clawing his way out of his hole and trying to save his marriage. On a critical day in both their lives, Doyle going to court to try winning joint-custody, and Gavin on his way to seal his career-making case, the two get into a minor accident on the FDR turnpike, causing Doyle to miss his hearing and Gavin to accidentally give Doyle a signed document that is critical to his case… and it all unravels from there.

The two tumble in a daylong haze of malice and self-destruction, sabotaging each other's lives. Whenever either decides to throw in the towel and do the ‘right' thing, it is too late and the other has already escalated it to the next level. His life quickly falling down around him, Gavin begins to examine it for the first time, taking a deep look into his wife, his law firm, his boss/father-in-law, and himself… ultimately questioning his motivation for trying to retrieve the document in the first place.

This is where the film really shines: many movies ask the question ‘what makes a man?' but `Changing Lanes' does it with honestly and authenticity. The screenplay, by Chap Taylor, asks if it is success, or if its providing for one's wife and kids, or if its true goodness, avoiding superficiality and delving into the motivations for each. In one telling monologue, Gavin's father-in-law, played with perfect tone by Sydney Pollack, says, `At the end of the day, I do more good than harm. What other standard have I got?' Unfortunately, the movie does not really ask the question of what makes a woman, even though both wives show real strength. The movie does not even seem to suggest that Gavin and Doyle's struggles could even be applied to women (obviously they could, had the movie explored that).

Jackson, always an excellent actor, is great as Gibson even if he has performed better before. Surprisingly, in this film Affleck's acting actually seems to surpass Jackson's in this amazing performance that is probably the best we have seen from Affleck so far.

All of the characters in the film, including minor-roles and extras, all exhibit a very human feel, and seeing real-feeling people on the screen has always been something rare and not to be taken for granted. The viewer comes to care about everyone in the picture: Gavin, Doyle, their wives, the guy at the bank, even the stranger at the bar.

New York City itself is alive in this movie: it breathes, coughs, and gasps with Salvatore Totino's shaky, unsaturated, claustrophobic photography. Totino really looks at people and the city in the face, and does not try to make them prettier or uglier than they are. David Arnold's original electronic score is a refreshing change from the very poor attempts at orchestral music that most movies are now filled with. Arnold's score very effectively sets the mood and reinforces the tempo of the movie.

`Changing Lanes' is a success for Roger Michell that shows us that a movie can have major stars, be entertaining, glossy, substantial, and pensive all-at-once.

`Changing Lanes' is rated R for a fender-bender, destruction of office equipment, unseen infidelity, a shot of the World Trade Center, and honest depiction of the human condition.

Carl Franklin's High Crimes, based upon Joseph Finder's novel of the same name, could just possibly be interesting if it didn't try so hard to do so. Instead of building a complex web of a storyline, the story instead reverts to reaching at the most impossible and improbable to further the intrigue, and thus lessens it instead. The film draws many parallels with Robert Zemeckis's What Lies Beneath, but lacks both the subtle art and spirited nature of that movie.

Claire Kubik (Ashley Judd) is a high-profile lawyer who lives as part of an idyllic marriage. One day her husband Tom Kubik (James Cavizel) is arrested by the FBI for a war crime and a secret past-life of his begins to unravel. Suddenly Claire finds herself defending her husband in a military tribunal that she is not familiar with, along with the help of maverick Marine lawyer Charles Grimes (Morgan Freeman). As expected, everything that could ever possibly go wrong does go wrong, which gives the film an strange pacing in which every time one thinks that the movie is over, it isn't. The story goes to extremes to show how lopsided the odds are by bringing in conspiracies that reach up to Generals, by having the prosecutor be the Marines' top lawyer, by having the defense lawyer be an inexperienced loser, and yada yada.

The characters are all flat stereotypes, and ultimately we don't really care about any of them, from the ugly-as-a-dog mad Marine Major Hernandez (Juan Carlos Hernandez), to the seemingly prepubescent young Marine lawyer Lt. Terrence Embry (Adam Scott) assigned to defend Tom, to Claire herself, a caricature of the cool-headed modern female lawyer who, because of her inner-warmth, desperately wants to have a baby. Near the end the crudely typical vengeful South American character stands valiantly at a doorway, reversing his role from throughout the film, and you almost expect him to say ‘que pasa?'

Dialogue in the movie is unoriginal and contrived, but is not poor enough that it stands out, and overall is utterly unremarkable, Ashley Judd exhibits an excellent performance in playing a confused, loving, strong woman, and in her skill highlights the lack of acting ability in James Cavizel, who is ill-matched with her. Morgan Freeman plays the same lovable outcast character we've often seen from him, and he does it well.

Theo van de Sande's photography, while neither innovative nor artistic, is wonderfully polished and alternately expresses claustrophobic terror through close shots or dizzying confusion through a twirling, dancing lens at the appropriate times. As is seen often in today's films, Sande uses the color blue very heavily, and also employs a shallow depth of focus.

The original score by Graeme Revell is professional enough, but is very generic and boring. In the movie, particularly in the beginning and end, the music awkwardly bounces back and forth between dramatic world music and R&B.

When the movie closes, the viewer has gained nothing, but has also lost nothing to this glossy but formulaic movie. Despite its faults, it is an entertaining ride, and the surprise ending (so necessary to complete the movie that it is half-predictable) will act as redemption in the eyes of those who would otherwise leave with a bad taste in their mouths.

`High Crimes' is rated PG-13. It contains blurry footage of corpses, conspirator's intimidating violence, humorous prostitutes, and adorable grandfatherly drunkenness.