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Changing Lanes
R3 - Korea - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (30th April 2004). |
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The Film
 I don't know about you but I'm sick of hearing about Ben Affleck, I'm sick of Pearl Harbour, I'm sick of Gigli, I'm sick of the whole Bennifer thing. There was a time when Ben was EVERYWHERE and it began to annoy me. This minor annoyance was probably why I didn't go and see Changing Lanes in the cinemas. But I made a mistake because after viewing this film today on DVD I wished I had the chance to see it on the big screen because in a word this film is terrific. Ben Affleck stars as corporate attorney Gavin Banek and Samuel L. Jackson as recovering alcoholic Doyle Gipson two men whose worlds cannot be further apart, caught up in their own dramas these two men meet as a result of a fender bender on the FDR highway. In his rush Gavin leaves the scene of the accident in order to make his court appearance to deliver to the judge important documents pertaining to a high profile case. However he inadvertently leaves the file on the side of the road and is now in the hands of Doyle who was left stranded on the FDR highway. As a result Doyle misses his child custody court hearing and sole custody has been given to his wife who plans to move away from Doyle. After spending a good portion of his life trying to clean up his act and stop drinking Doyle was finally in a place where he and his family could start over again, but since he missed his hearing all that has gone down the toilet. Gavin now has a dilemma, if he doesn't get the file back by the end of the day and present it to the judge, his job and career are in jeopardy, he may even face jail time. At a chance meeting with Doyle he tries to pay him off for the file, but all Doyle wants is his twenty minutes back so he can rebuild his relationship with his estranged wife and kids. It's at this point where the film begins to get very interesting, as it triggers a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. Gavin tries to force Doyle in giving him back the file by contracting the services of a hacker to break into Doyle's personal records and destroy his credit. In return Doyle threatens to destroy the file if his credit isn't restored. One turn begets another until someone is willing to stop and do the right thing. This was a captivating film from start to finish, held together by some wonderful performances by the two leading men as well as an excellent supporting cast that includes Toni Collette, Sydney Pollack and Amanda Peet. Director Roger Michell has pieced together a fine drama made up of smart storytelling that really plays on the viewers loyalties between the two characters, these are all accentuated with solid cinematography and well paced editing keep you interested the whole way through. I would recommend this film to anyone.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1, this transfer is anamorphic and is certainly top notch. Being a film that is quite recent there are no noticeable flaws in the transfer. The film takes place on an overcast and sometimes rainy day so the colours and overall look of the film is quite muted, I have found that the transfer is an accurate representation of the look the filmmakers where trying to achieve.
Audio
This DVD offers the film both English and Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, for the purpose of this review I chose to view the film with it's English track. This is mainly a dialogue driven film and for a film of this nature I'm happy to say that there is certainly a very good amount of activity on all channels. The effectiveness of this track lies in it's overall subtlety, channels are used mainly for atmos, sounds like noises of a city, cars, traffic, rain, etc come out clean and not too overwhelming. Paramount has offered a great 5.1 track to accompany the great transfer. The film also includes subtitles in English, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin and Thai.
Extras
For a film that didn't make a huge dent in the box office Paramount have given us a nice selection of extras. Which include a director's commentary, two featurettes, some deleted and extended scenes as well as a trailer. The first extra is the commentary by director Roger Michell, the director talks mainly about his character's motivations, the locations used in the film and how the events of 9/11 effected the film. These comments are also interweaved with the occasional on set story or tidbit. Overall it’s a very interesting and informative track. Following the commentary we have two featurettes the first entitled "The Making of Changing Lanes" your basic EPK style featurette, runs 15 minutes in length and is made up of various interviews edited in with some behind-the-scenes footage and clips from the film. The interviews are full frame format, while the clips are in anamorphic widescreen. The second featurette is entitled "The Writer's Perspective" and runs for 6 1/2 minutes. This is basically interviews with the two screenwriters Michael Tolkin and Chap Taylor. They discuss the writing of the film and the character's motivations. Then there are two deleted scenes and one extended scene. The first features Gavin conducting a job interview with a young law graduate, and the second deleted scene features Doyle getting fired from his job. And finally we get an extended confessional booth scene with Gavin that runs for around 4 minutes and doesn't really add anything to the film. There are no explanations why these scenes where trimmed but it's not really necessary. Rounding out the extras is the film's theatrical trailer in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1
Overall
An underestimated drama that is both riveting and thought provoking, what we have is one solid film, the DVD presents the film with an excellent audio and visual transfer and although the extras are few they serve the film quite well. Highly recommended.
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