In the name of law

Arthur J Pais

It all starts as a minor road accident and it might have ended being another of those daily New York accidents but for the two highly volatile men involved in it.

Interestingly, both men are bound to a court - Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) to deal with a sensitive and high profile probate case involving millions and Doyle Gipson (Samuel L Jackson) to plead with the judge that his children not be taken away by his estranged wife. A recovering alcoholic, Gipson is trying to buy a house so that his wife and sons won't move away from New York.

The insult hotshot lawyer Banek flings at Gipson, a down and out insurance salesman, at the scene of the accident, leads to a daylong vendetta in director Roger Michell's thriller, Changing Lanes.

A gripping melodrama, the film looks often contrived especially towards the end. Yet, it is thoroughly engaging.

While Doyle misses his court date and loses his custody battle, Banek realises he has accidentally left behind with Gipson, the file that is utterly critical to his case. Without it, his firm and he could be slapped with fraud charges.

Gipson, frustrated by his personal losses and the insult hurled by Banek, is in no mood to oblige the attorney. Though clearly a sympathetic character at the beginning, Gipson turns murderous as the tense drama continues.

The Paramount flick, which is bound for a solid mid-range success (approximately $60 million), also raises interesting questions of race relations and corporate skullduggery. It is also a story of the depths seemingly decent men can sink to. But in the final run, the film is not hopeless --- and though its happy ending looks predicable, it was perhaps necessary to give the film a decent run at the box office.

Michell, whose best-known film Notting Hill (Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant), was a hugely successful comedy, is wonderful in eliciting solid performances from his cast. Everyone, including the minor players, shine here. But the film will be remembered for superb performances by Jackson and Affleck.

We have known for a long time what a superb actor Jackson is. Even then, it is a pleasure to see him in a raft of diverse moods in Changing Lanes. On one hand, he wants to be a good father --- and we see him in a subdued form. And then he turns spectacularly vicious - and we see him deliver a solid performance in that role too.

For Affleck, who has been in the lead in such successful films such as Pearl Habour but has not been effective as an actor for several years, this film is a career milestone. We see him giving a most full-blooded performance as an arrogant but conflicted attorney who has to make crucial and life-affirming choices in the end.