Ben Affleck plays lawyer Gavin Banek. He has been fairly successful in his career so far and has worked his way to a junior partner position at his firm. His current case involves the ownership of an estate and charity left when one of the city's biggest benefactors has passed away. Before his death, this man left the ownership of the charity to Banek's firm, and the man's daughter is fighting this, claiming that the firm is stealing control. But Gavin isn't worried, all he has to do is show up in court and present the papers and he is free and clear.
Meanwhile, Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson) is a recovering alcoholic who is trying to win back his wife and two kids. This morning, he has bought a house for them to keep them from moving to the other side of the country. All he has to do is make it to court and plead his case and let his family know what he has done.
Well, when both men get distracted on the Interstate and crash into each other, Gavin's impatience leaves Doyle stranded in the street with nothing but a blank check (no insurance information ... despite Doyle's insistence). Well, he does leave one other thing - Gavin drops and forgets the one file he needs to prove his company's innocence, and now Doyle, a man he scorned and didn't even get the name of, has the one thing that will keep him from going to jail.
Needless to say, Doyle doesn't make it to his court appearance on time, and the judge rules in favor of his ex-wife for full custody. When Gavin finally finds Doyle (out of sheer chance), Doyle is none-to-happy with the lawyer, and the cycle of revenge and spite begins. While these events start with just angry conversations, they quickly escalate to loosened lug nuts and destroyed credit records (which isn't good for a man trying to buy a house).
What is interesting about this film is to watch both characters realize just who they have slowly become over the years. While Doyle doesn't drink anything, he finds out that it isn't the alcohol that drives his family away, and Gavin starts to learn just how underhanded and dirty his bosses are (and he has started to become). The movie is more a story of these two men learning who they really are and working to change things. If they hadn't have had their accident, then both Doyle and Gavin would have continued on their existing destructive paths. Of course, what makes this movie good is how they discover these aspects of themselves and how it all turns out in the end.
This Blu-ray is light on special features. It only boasts a commentary track, some deleted scenes and a pretty standard making-of featurette. The one featurette of note was called "A Writer's Perspective." This was an interview with the writers of the movie about their views on the film and the characters.
While I enjoyed Changing Lanes, there isn't enough desire to re-watch the movie for me to consider it purchasable. It's definitely a rental because Samuel L. Jackson does a great job playing his standard angry-crazy role, and Affleck isn't all that bad here either.
