Changing Lanes

Published 2024-04-28

Film info

Title Changing Lanes
Director Roger Michell
Year 2002
Run time 1hr 38m
Genres Thriller, Action, Drama
Tagline One wrong turn deserves another
Cast Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson, Toni Collette

Hot-shot, New York attorney, Gavin Banek and recovering alcoholic Doyle Gibson find their lives become intertwined on the evening of Good Friday when their cars collide. Late for a meeting, Banek gives Doyle a blank cheque to cover the damage, whilst Doyle's car is a write-off and he is late for a custody-hearing.

Live blog

Time	Comment
4:04	They're a better school orchestra than I've ever heard.
6:48	"Be careful with your metaphors."
9:47	NEVER write a blank cheque, wowsers.
14:55	Jeez, that really is an important piece of paper.
21:40	It's lucky they were going to the same place, you could surely never find a specific human in New York.
28:17	That bar is called Puffy's. Love it.
36:09	Why didn't he try the 'call him up and be nice to him' tactic first?
42:42	He left that message on a work answerphone? Idiot!
51:13	You surely can't switch bankruptcy on and off like that.
57:31	This wife character is the worst.
1:07:19	"Why does the world need meaning?" It has none, get used to it.
1:12:29	That's pretty grim on the kids.
1:22:17	"An agreement not to go batshit."

Thoughts

This movie got off to such a slow start, we had to extend the 20 minute rule because I was curious to know what happened even though it was dragging the premise out. And then at about 40 minutes, I was enraged because there's such an obvious solution - the guy is a lawyer, so man up, apologise and offer to help him out with his legal issues for free. Problem solved. But no, this is men just being terrible humans to each other. It did get better and a bit more entertaining, although still totally unbelievable, by the end, and raised some interesting questions around morality, but I think it could do better.

Rating: 2 / 5