Who the hell does Roger Michell think he is, to try and preach the necessity for morality and goodheartedness to me.  Changing Lanes is his loosely disguised sermon on the effects of circumstance and chance, on who we are, and who we think we should be.  The story gets lost in all the grandstanding of the message, and gets crowded with all the little side stories that he throws in to try and drive his point home.  What gets lost, is the story, which was paper thin to begin with, but becomes the platform for the message of finding your true self, and what is most important to you.  Personally, I don’t goto movies to get a lesson on how valuable life is, or how important it is to be moral and just, I go there for an escape, to another world, that sometimes mirrors own on, but can also be entertaining.  Michell’s artistic attempt gets weighed down by his ethics, and ultimately drowned by his heavy handed direction, and lack of substantive principle. 

The premise was a fairly simply, if not potentially interesting one.  Gavin is a successful Wall Street attorney, with a cushy job, generous bosses (Pollack in a deliciously scene chewing role) and a lovely, understanding wife (Peet).  On his way to file documents in a very important case involving the execution of a trust fund for a wealthy industrialist. The future of he and his firm’s fate lies in the resolution of this case in their favor.  Meanwhile Doyle Gipson (Jackson) is a father, involved in a custody battle with his wife, and an ongoing alcohol addiction.  Their paths cross during a traffic accident on a busy expressway.  Banek, on his way to the case, and Gipson, on his way to the custody hearing after securing the purchase of a house (to provide stability) are thrown together by fate, and now are about to have the day from hell, dealing with the consequences.   Gipson, an insurance agent, wants to do things the right way and get all the information and such, despite risking being tardy for his hearing.  Banek, oblivious to all of this, just wants to get back on the road (conveniently having the only driveable vehicle) and does this, wishing Gipson ‘better luck next time”.  Somehow, you just know those words are going to come back to haunt him.  And then some.  What follows, is how their lives spin off of this meeting, and out of control, as they deal with each other, and the many hurdles that the story unnecessarily throws in their way.  I would have preferred the simple chess game (ala Panic Room) of two people, in the biggest city in the country, trying to one up each other, and ultimately win the battle.  Instead, we are given lessons in how events like this can make us realize, and sometimes solve or overcome, the things that live gives us to deal with.  It is a hearty and ambitious task that Michell and company tackle, and proves to be too much.  The film becomes laborious in beating us over the head with the message, while tying it all together with the accident.  Even the presence of a cameo from the great William Hurt, cannot save the story from being too excessive in its attempt to make us think, evaluate, and analyze, the big and small events, and the consequences of our reactions to them.

Speaking of performances, whoever told Affleck that he could step out of playing cocky, arrogant, cutesy types, needs to be drawn and quartered, post haste.  I have never been sold on Affleck’s ability to carry a movie, and the presence of a great actor like Jackson, proves that even more.  Even Sam seems to be struggling, at times, with the material, to convince both himself, and us, of the importance of what the film wants to say.  If I wanted a lecture, or a sermon, I would goto church, not to movies like this.

Ultimately, Changing Lanes is a tiring, overdone example of desperate preachiness done in place of, and for lack of, a story idea that can withstand a reasonable running time.  If you want an example of how to take a simple idea, which may not be able to sustain a long running time, you should see Panic Room, because Fincher is a good film maker, and Michell, at least with this effort, is not.  Instead of milking the desperation of two people playing a chess game with each others lives, we are given a morality lesson, and the revelations that each one comes to because of the events.  We are hammered over the head with them so much, that it becomes tiring and frustrating almost.  I foresaw a movie that played upon the tension that everyday life can create.  The interactions, and intersections of two people, fueled by varying levels of desperation and frustration, would have made for an interesting social study.  Instead, Michell’s touch, which was so delicate and perfect in Notting Hill, becomes cumbersome and grandstanding in it tone, and delivery.  I don’t need an ethics or morality lesson about lawyers that feel bad about what they do, or a father who is just struggling to stay sober, while fighting to get his kids back.  There are too many stories, too many distractions, and in the end, just way too much movie, even for the short running time.

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