Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Nadine Salakov Changing Lanes is about two people who are having difficulties in their lives, they enter each other's lives via a fender bender, one of them refuses to help the other leading into an extreme tit for tat situation throughout the entire movie.Changing Lanes has a unique plot, the main characters "Gavin Banek" (Ben Affleck) and "Doyle Gipson" (Samuel L. Jackson) are perfect for their roles, Director Roger Michell did outstanding work with this flick, and everyone else involved in this movie did a superb job.The film score composed by David Arnold is hip and suits the movie with it's drum and bass mixed with classical style.Changing Lanes doesn't allow you to root for a particular character because the plot is so much more than that. We see events from both points of view and both are likable characters, the motion picture is more on the lines of "what will they do next?" rather than "what character to root for".It's clear that "Gavin" (Affleck) is in more trouble than "Doyle" (Samuel L. Jackson) although "Doyle" is on the verge of losing his children, he is not committing crimes as opposed to "Gavin" - he is on the verge of ending up in jail and he's doing some really dodgy work with his boss/father in law, but by the end he makes the rights out of the wrongs. When you look into the plot more deeply it is highly possible that had the two main characters had not had that crazy feud, they may not have got their lives back on track in the end.There are a few scenes that stand out, one being the scene of "Doyle" beating up these two white men after butting in their conversation because they mentioned a "black kid", at one point in the movie "Doyle"'s mentor tells him that he's "addicted to chaos", this is shown here in the scene with the two white guys, had he not been hooked on chaos and disaster, he would have just minded his own business and ignored the black kid comment or better still leave the bar, he shouldn't be drinking anyway!A very clever and imperative scene is in the courthouse where we see "Gavin" at the same courthouse and at the same time as "Doyle", a fantastic scene that speaks so many words.Overall a great movie.

SnoopyStyle Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) is a high power lawyer with a big case. Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson) is an insurance salesman in AA struggling with his divorce. Their worlds collide when they get into a car accident. Stress for time, Gavin runs off before they could exchange information but he drops an important file. Now Gavin needs Doyle's help to get the file back. Doyle isn't very cooperative since he couldn't get to divorce court and he lost his kids.These are not likable people. It's dark stuff. It's fill with anger and desperation. It's ugly and it's not a fun watch. Ben Affleck is basically a callous jerk who's losing his moral compass. Jackson is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. One unlikeable character is maybe enough, but two is too much to take. This movie bashes the audience with moral ugliness. It's heavy handed and that's the part that I dislike.

wandereramor Changing Lanes is fundamentally about two men who do bad things but are trying to do better. The main difference is that one is endorsed by society -- Ben Affleck's wall street banker -- and one isn't -- Samuel L. Jackson's alcoholic deadbeat dad. This difference in their social stations drives them into a conflict that causes both of them to revert to their worst impulses.As much as it offers ordinary revenge thrills, Changing Lanes is notable for recognizing the complexity and inequality of our social structure, which dominates even the most powerful of the characters in the film. Even the most obvious villains have reasons for their actions, and one can see how they're pushed into playing out their social roles. At the same time, it's not entirely deterministic -- there are right things to do, but they're difficult, usually involving hurting someone or giving up on some principle or another.Affleck acquits himself relatively well, although he's still Ben Affleck. Jackson is predictably great, as this is back when he still sometimes cared, and Amanda Peet is fantastic in a brief but memorable role as Affleck's amoral wife. Of course, the film is more than a bit melodramatic, with things escalating to a ridiculous extent over the course of one day, and the attempt at reforming Affleck's character towards the end feels a bit forced. It's still a mainstream Hollywood drama, and never really deviates from that style. But it's better than most such dramas, and is in the end a nice film that's been already forgotten as part of the ebb and flow of popular cinema. That forgetting is kind of justified -- it certainly won't go on anyone's best-ever list, resting as it does in the realm of the merely above-average -- but it's still worth a couple hours of your time.

srlf To me, this movie was a depiction of the tension between the needs of the ego of the immature person and the needs of a person to follow their bliss and serve more than the ego as one becomes a true adult. The scene in front of the painting where Gavin Banek describes the girl at the beach is a description of a person wrenched between the "house' they have spent their life building and the call TODAY to the life you were meant to live: "It's like you go to the beach. You go down to the water. It's a little cold. You're not sure you want to go in. There's a pretty girl standing next to you, and you know that if you just asked her your name, you would leave with her. Forget your life, whoever you came with, and leave the beach with her. And after that day, you remember. Not every day, every week… she comes back to you. It's the memory of another life you could have had. Today is that girl." Gavin (and Doyle?) finds the "edge" that everyone should find, where you find a way to use your talents in service of your calling. Unfortunately, usually first it involves the fall. Then, comes the lane change. I loved the acting and directing as well.