Grade: B

Verdict: A pretty darn good movie with two very darn good stars.

Details: Starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Roger Michell. Rated R for language and some mild violence. One hour, 41 minutes.

Rate it: Write your own review

Review: “Sometimes God likes to put two guys in a paper bag and let 'em rip.”

So says high-end lawyer Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) in the new drama, “Changing Lanes.”

Frankly, that's as good a plot summary as any. The other guy is Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson), an insurance agent who doesn't make in a week what Gavin makes in an hour.

The two collide on the FDR Expressway when Gavin, trying to make a court hearing involving a cool hundred million, changes lanes without looking. Doyle, being in the biz, wants them to exchange insurance info, but Gavin is in too much of a hurry. Tossing a blank check at him, Gavin takes off, leaving Doyle stranded. The rub comes when Doyle is 20 minutes late to his own very important court date — a custody hearing involving his two sons. Because he's late, he loses.

Rub number 2: Gavin was in such an almighty hurry that he left behind a file crucial to his case — a file Doyle just happened to have picked up.

What happens when two guys have a very bad day on the same day? An escalating game of “gotcha” that threatens to turn violent.

Though you couldn't tell it from the action-packed ads, “Changing Lanes” is an ethics lesson disguised as a vengeance story. Both men are forced to confront who they are and what their sense of morality means. Will Gavin play ball with his very rich, very corrupt senior partners who've figured out a way to make the problem of the missing file go away? Will Doyle revert to the alcohol-fueled rage that destroyed his marriage? “You aren't addicted to booze,” his fed-up AA sponsor (William Hurt) tells him. “You're addicted to chaos.”

The movie isn't quite as sharp as it should be, considering its stars. It can get thin and predictable. Or maybe a better word is “forced,” as director Roger Michell (“Notting Hill”) pushes his do-the-right-thing agenda. But the idea that any Hollywood movie with two big Hollywood names would ask questions about conscience and accountability helps you cut the picture some slack. The occasional lapses into simple-mindedness don't destroy the movie's essentially sturdy framework.

Watching Jackson play meek and downtrodden (well, at least at first) is a treat. He toys with energy level, making Doyle someone who has only two speeds: mild-mannered and ballistic. Affleck, an often problematical actor, is just as good. He's making a good living as a straight-arrow hero (“Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor”) but he's much better as a semi-sleazy guy who likes the cut corners if it means another cashmere coat or a new boat. Much as Michael Douglas does, Affleck excels at playing guys who swing back and forth between nice and not-so-nice. It gives an edge to his inherent blandness.

“Changing Lanes” is one of those it coulda been better/it coulda been worse movies. But it raises good questions and it doesn't cop out. “At the end of the day,” says Gavin's fat-cat father-in-law/boss (Sydney Pollack), "I think I've done more good than harm.”

How very convenient for someone who's never really been in harm's way.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution